An Assassin's Creed
by MissVisarrow
Summary: Clara thought she was playing her favorite game on a super computer she stumbled upon, but when Ezio appears before her as a living, breathing human, she must teach the Assassin how to live in her time, and decipher her feelings and his actions.R&R Please
1. Prologue: Close

**Hello! I'm back! (To the people who have to kindly read and reviewed my InuYasha fan-fics) It was a long time ago that I updated anything here. I've been really busy lately T^T. Sorryyyy~ Anypoodle, here's a new story I've been thinking about for a long time. It's interesting, so just give it a chance! :D Read and review please, and be brutally honest! I need to know if something is wrong or just plain boring. ;3**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's Creed 1&2 and Brotherhood/Ezio. They belong to Ubisoft. **

**-Prologue-**

She never thought it would come to this. Running from her family and friends to a place she never thought she would see with her own two eyes, all for a man she had fallen hopelessly in love with. For a man she had accidentally brought into a world he didn't know; an assassin who knew how to run. As she had taught him of his new surroundings, he was teaching her how to be a ghost among people.

Now, his blood covered her. He lied on the ground, both of them hiding from authorities who were hunting them down. They had nearly made it to their destination, but one false step had made them take so many steps backwards, and now he was wounded. They both held their breath as another police man ran by the abandoned building they hid in. The breath he let out was shaky and half a groan. She looked down at him and went back to hastily trying to clean the bullet wound that thankfully was a threw and threw.

He winced when she dabbed the open gash with the medicine, but stayed quiet. He knew how to handle his pain well, but she could see it in his eyes that he was hurting badly. When she looked to his eyes he gave her his crooked smile, the light scar on his lips curling. She let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head, but couldn't stop a nearly hidden grin from pulling up on the corners of her lips.

"You're an idiot for doing that, Ezio," she mumbled, pushing him onto his stomach so she could clean the hole in his back. "Mi Dispiace. I did it for you, mia bella," he groaned in an almost sexual nature, despite having just been shot, all with a smile still on his lips. He was able to gather the strangest of mood changes in the most hostile of predicaments. She rolled her eyes; she knew when he used his voices that he was trying to distract her for her own good, but this wasn't the time to play.

"Zitto. You could've been killed, stronzo." She said grimly, being sure to press a little harder into his wound. He moved beneath her. "Hey, be nice. Your words are getting better, you know." He said, but she ignored him. His smile softened some as he looked back at her worried face. How her eyebrows would arch down and give her the look of a woman who had seen the worst of everything life could throw at her. That's one of the things he loved about her; the ability to take anything someone threw at her and throw it back with wraithlike power. "It would've killed me to see you in my spot," he said kindly, and she felt her heart lessen with irritation. She smoothly rolled him onto his back and closed his thin shirt, then leaned down so their noses were almost touching. Her long, dark brown wavy locks fell around her neck and he tugged on one of the ends as her thumb wiped away some of the sweat on his forehead. "I can't wait to see where you're from," she said, and he smirked. "We're almost there, Clara." He whispered, and pulled her down to plant a firm kiss on her lips.


	2. Ch 1: Open Doors

**I've been really debating on how to start chapter one. Twas quite the battle in my mind, but I'm confident that this is the way to start :)**

**Here's chapter 1. R&R Please, It's much appreciated! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ezio from the Assassin's Creed trilogies; they all belong to UbiSoft. **

The tall, dark buildings had never really caught too much of her attention until now. Usually the doors were chained shut as they had been for as long as she could remember walking the streets she did to get home. For the ten years she remembered walking home everyday from school, these doors were always shut. Today, the chains were a loose puddle around the bottoms of the tall metal doors. Some of the links looked like they had been cut and were scattered about. Clara removed her ear buds and stuffed her Zune into her dark blue messenger bag, and pulled out her bulky Canon camera.

She adjusted the lens and snapped a shot, stepping towards the doors. She cautiously approached the small crack in the door and looked in, but all she could see were what seemed to be very tall contraptions covered in tarps. Some of the covered pieces had sharp edges and others looked like giant storage boxes standing straight up, but all of this only added to her curiosity. She took a moment to look all around her for any sort of public authorities that would stop her, and when she saw none, she cautiously opened the doors wider. They moved with an eerie screech, making her ears ring. She finally opened the heavy doors enough so she could slide through and be mindful of her large bag. Once inside, she stopped for a moment to stand in front of the doors and try to adjust her vision to the now darker room. She lifted her camera and snapped another picture, and for a split second as the flash went off, she could see smaller, covered pieces of what ever lie under the tarps sitting in front of the large ones. "What the…?" she mumbled, and she stepped forward cautiously.

She dug her hand into her bag and fumbled to find her small flashlight, and finally pulled it out and lit up the room. All around her were scattered papers and torn cardboard boxes, and to her surprise, tables with what seemed to be old, molded food. The cups that were set were knocked over and the chairs were pulled from around the table; it looked like who ever once came here left in a hurry. She walked over to a small pile of papers and blew the heavy layer of dust off of it, showing complex schematics to some sort of computer. She recognized the binary codes and the drawings of micro chips, but it was still all gibberish to her. She let the paper fall back to the ground and focused her attention to the structures. As she came closer to them with every apprehensive step, she realized that a soft humming noise radiated from under the tarps. She followed the stream of her light to the bottom of the tarps where thin and thick, multiple colored wires weaved around the base of what ever lie under.

They too had a lot of dust covering them, but to her sudden realization, there were many sets of foot prints printed into the dusty floor around the structures. In fact, they were everywhere, and she could tell they were recent, which meant that someone knew what was here. She looked back to the tall tarps, and clicked her flash light off and stuffed it into her pocket.

She grabbed tightly of the tarps and walked backwards, listening to the loud rustling as it started to slide off what ever mystery was hidden. As the last of the tarps finally fluttered down to the ground, Clara's eyes opened widely to what she saw.

She fumbled to turn her flash light on again and illuminate what she thought was a giant type of computer, with wires that stuck out and covered bare pieces of bare circuits and circuit boards. Some pieces looked like they were out of someone's wildest imagination; extreme, jagged looking objects with long bars of twisting electrical colors that zapped and struck other pieces like lightning. But towards the center it all came together with thick, bulging wires connected to one large screen, completely stripped down to simply the screen itself. Behind it was what she couldn't see, which was a boxy, thick mechanism that was spinning so quickly it let off the gentle humming noise she heard. The screen was glowing in a soft blue hue, lighting up the space she stood in.

She took a long moment to stare at the masterpiece before her, hesitant to step any closer to it in fear it might come alive and attack her. But, against her smarter half screaming at her to leave and never come back, she stepped forward to better observe it. The screen was hung on a platform that was leveled with her eyes sight perfectly, and as she came closer to it she could see another small object supported below it. She looked under the screen, and once again to her surprise, the all too familiar PlayStation logo and basic shape of a PS3 was nailed to the screen. It too was peeled of its shiny black cover to reveal the inside workings of it, and she could see the soft red light of it. "It's off." she asked aloud, standing back up to look at the screen.

'Is it a giant game player… thing?' she thought in wonderment, now eager to play with what she was now dubbing a super computer. She stared at the screen for a long time, her lips in a straight line and her leg bouncing impatiently. "Okay." She said suddenly, starting to search for the controller. "I'm just going to see what the hell this thing can do, and _then_ I'll leave." She muttered to herself, ducking below the screen to look for the controller.

She was now on her hands and knees crawling under it to search for the illusive little devil. "This isn't what you're supposed to do," she whispered to herself as her hands scanned the ground. "But it's the adventurous thing to do." She was arguing with herself, and so far, her less intelligent side was winning. She looked to her side, and sitting out in the open in front of the giant computer laid the small controller, shining in the dim light of the room. It was like it was laughing at her. She rolled her eyes and crawled over to it, then back in front of the screen. She pressed the button in the center of the controller and waited for it to turn on, and then paused. She kept her eyes glued to the low glow of the screen for a long time, debating whether to actually turn it on.

She sighed. "The worst that could happen is that it explodes," she said, and then pressed the button again. The small 'beep' of the PS3 sounded off, and the humming from the computer grew louder. The screen lit up to white, and she immediately felt like she would regret anything she did next, but still, she sat in front of the screen. She held the control tighter in her hands as the whirling of the hidden mechanism behind the screen grew louder, until, it suddenly halted to a whisper, and the familiar tune of the home screen of the PS3 sounded off and the rolling lace flew across the screen. There was an account on there, named 'SD-01'. "Bleh," she said as she stuck her tongue out, and opted to make a new one. She sat for another moment thinking of a name, and already started to feel a low head ache grow behind her eyes from not using her glasses. She rubbed her eyes for a moment, but it only made it worse. "I could use some mo-", she stopped mid sentence and looked back to the screen, and smiled. "Miss… Morphine." She said, clicking wildly to spell her name out. When she was finished, she realized one key aspect to her new development.

"No game…" she mumbled, and momentarily thrashed her arms about. As she mentally kicked herself in the head, she fiddled about the settings until everything was to her liking, including the color of the layout. "Purple," she chimed, standing and turning off the system. She jumped back as a loud _bing_ noise rang from the machine, and a small window appeared on the screen. Her eyes squinted as she stepped forward, reading aloud, "Are you sure you want to shut down the system- Any data change will be lost." She stepped back and glanced between the super computer and screen many times. "Well that could be bad."

She chose the No option, and another window came up with the options of Standby and Log Off. She bit her bottom lip, and finally chose Standby, then placed the controller back where she found it. She moved backwards towards the doors slowly, fumbling to pull out her camera and snap one more full shot of what she had found, and then turned to quickly walk out the doors. She peered out cautiously through the heavy doors, making sure no one was around.

She then slipped out, and began to hurriedly walk from the alley and towards her sister's house, eager to ask her brother-in-law about what she had found.

* * *

><p>"Will you just look at-?" she argued, trying to shove her camera in Steven's (her brother in law) annoyed face. He lightly slapped her hand away, glaring at her. "I'm trying to fix <em>your <em>laptop, leave me alone for a bit." He said calmly, walking back to the kitchen with her disassembled laptop. "This is better then the laptop!" she said, walking after him. Steven was a computer whizz- well, anything whizz. He could fix anything and solve anything, and was a complete computer and game freak, so she couldn't understand how or why he was passing up something this incredible.

"Nope." He said, placing the laptop down and leaning down to pick up his one year old daughter, Leah. She giggled and kicked wildly in his hands because she knew she had gotten in his way, and had achieved being picked up. He passed Leah to Clara and she grumbled, taking the small child. Leah tried to grab for her camera, and Clara gently told her no and set her down, instead giving her the flashlight to play with. The small child pitter pattered away. Clara grumbled and stormed over to Steven, and punched his arm. When he turned to her to say something, she quickly moved the camera screen in front of his face. Her tactic had worked; as soon as his eyes fell on the strange picture she had taken, his hands grabbed for the camera. "What the hell…" he said, turning to pop the chip from the camera and place it in his own computer to enlarge the photo.

They both stared at the photo, examining it. "Where the hell is this thing?" he asked, looking at her. "It's in that huge warehouse next to the bay that's been locked up forever." She said standing and crossing her arms. "That thing… Is- Wow." He said, leaning closer to the screen. "Is that a gutted PS3?" he asked. "Oh, yea; the giant screen? It was hooked to the PS3 and it worked and everything. But I don't know what the rest of that thing is." She said, rummaging around the kitchen for something to eat. Just then, her sister, Jesy walked in with their second three year old daughter, Apple, and she looked furious. Clara spun to watch her drag a sad faced Apple with her to the sink as she plunged her hand into a bag of chips.

"What happened?" Steven asked as he looked at the two. "Your daughter found your super glue, which was lying around, again! Now she has her hand stuck together!" She bellowed, trying to scrub the glue from her hand. Clara bit her bottom lip to try not and smile, and Steven turned before she could see his smirk. "Sorry," he muttered. "So could I play a game on that thing?" she asked, waddling back over to his side. "Honestly, I have no clue. Might be best if you leave it alone," he said, looking at her with an apologetic stare. She put on a pouty face and blew one of her wavy dark curls from her face, and then pulled her chip from the computer. "Okay. Well I'm gonna leave. When will my laptop be done?" she asked, gathering her belongings and heading towards the back door. "Tomorrow, come by after school." He said.

"Okay. By girls!" Clara chimed, blowing kisses to the children as she closed the door behind her. As she walked around the back of the house and back along the sidewalk, she pondered over the super computer she had found, and most of all, how badly she wanted to go back to better observe it. She'd much rather have Steven with her, seeing as he could probably diagnose exactly what is was, but she had a feeling he wasn't going to budge from his _own _computer. She rolled her eyes and kicked the small puddle she walked over.

* * *

><p>"No, it's like a super computer or something." Clara said quietly, falling face first onto her queen sized bed. By the time she had finally arrived home it was dark outside and freezing to the bone, and of course, raining. Her clothes had soaked through, so instead of happily strolling into her home to eat, she was forced to shower and do the wash, and by the time she had finished she was too tired to do anything else.<p>

So, with the last ounce of energy left, she dragged her heavy limbs upstairs and into her room. But, of course, her plans of pulling a Pocahontas into her bed were pulverized as her cell phone rang. She had been texting her best friend, Gloree the whole way home, telling her about what she had found. And then, she called. So, now exhausted and annoyed, Clara simply fell onto her bed, curling into the numerous blankets and pillows.

"Well you said it had a PS3 connected to it, right? You should try to play a game or something." Gloree said. Clara could sense a mischievous tone in her taunting words. "Oh, yea?" Clara said lazily, rolling on her back and looking to her side.

Across her room was her TV and below her own PS3 and a pile of games around it. "Hm. What game…" she mumbled, her eyes unconsciously scanning her cluttered walls filled with posters and pictures, drawings and other miscellaneous objects. In Clara's room, there was plenty to look at. Every surface was covered with something, whether it be anime or renaissance art, something was always interesting to look at. She had a very large room, enough to fit a huge bed, computer desk and full entertainment center, and there was still room to move around.

Her favorite part though was her wall of windows, and the cushioned bench underneath it. On the days she was down or just wanted to be alone, she would find herself peering out her window and into plush canyon behind her house.

Her eyes followed patterns and faces until she hit her Assassins Creed corner, adorned with Altair's and Ezio's everywhere. When she said she was in love with the game, she wasn't dicking around. She LOVED the game. Enough to have merchandise, clothes, even a cosplay costume she had spent a year saving up for. Her eyes stuck on one of her favorite full sized cutouts of Ezio, his arms crossed and the sideways smirk on his lips. And then it hit her. She shot up and stumbled over to her wall, starring the cardboard Ezio in his non-existent eyes. The whole time she hadn't really been listening to Gloree rambling about something to do with True Blood and Lady Gaga; it was more of a background noise to her, so when Clara interrupted her, she received an angry reaction.

"Bitch, were you listening to anything I just said?" Gloree yelled. "Monster Ball and Eric?" Clara asked quickly, and Gloree chuckled on the other end. "I have an epic idea," Clara said, turning to retrieve her Assassin's Creed II video game case. "Que?" Gloree asked. "I'm gonna play Ezio on that huge computer." She said, walking back over to her bed and laying down, staring at the case. "Good luck pulling yourself away from it once you start," Gloree said flatly.

"You should come with me. Ple~ase?" Clara pleaded.

"But Monster Ball is on tomorrow!" Gloree whined in response.

"You can record it!"

"But-"

"PLE~ASE!" Clara yelled, rolling back and forth. There was a long silence, and then, "I want Don Pedro's for this." Gloree said, and Clara giggled. "Tomorrow after school!" She said, happily trotting over to her TV and preparing to play her game. "Horchata, too." She added. Gloree made a 'pfft' noise, and the line went dead. Clara laughed eerily and placed her Blackberry next to her, her attention already fixated on the game.

**I hope that was okay… Next chapter is where things are going to pick up! :D Please R&R! **

**-MissVisarrow**


	3. Ch 2: Lightning

**Now that I'm writing again I can't stop. :3 And from now on, I'm going to be posting the song(s) I listen to while I write this chapter, for two reasons. To better illustrate what is going on and just in case someone wants some new tunes to listen to. :D Well here's chapter 2! R&R please, it's very much appreciated!**

**311-Beautiful Disaster**

**Guards-Sail It Slow ft. CULTS**

**Zack Hemsey-Changeling**

**-Chapter 2-**

Clara angrily opened her eyes as her alarm blared at her, waking her from a very short slumber. Time had slipped her mind the night before, and before she had known it, she was only two hours from having to wake up for school. Now, even more exhausted then before, and completely unprepared to get up and go, she dragged her body from her warm bed and into the chilled air that wrapped around her body like a silk sheet. After hitting her snooze button on her phone numerous times for the last two hours, she only had about fifteen minutes to get ready, but she was painfully unaware to such things. The hardwood floor was frigid against her bare feet, causing her to nearly gallop to the bathroom down the hall, and accidentally slammed the door behind her.

"Fail!" her brother, Dylan, yelled from his room as he came out. She rolled her eyes and finished her business, returning to her room to get ready for the day ahead of her. She rubbed her green hazel eyes dry of the water that was left after she washed her face, feeling a cold drop run down her cheek. As she entered her room and walked to her closet, her eyes instinctively hit the wall of Ezio, and then she remembered; the super computer. In half a second she was awake and eagerly putting an outfit together, a little too excited to be heading to school. As she hoped around her room pulling her shoes on, she grabbed her AC II game and stuck it in her mouth, glancing at the time on her phone. Only seven minutes till she had to leave. She growled angrily at herself and grabbed her school bag and skipped down the stairs. As she hit the bottom step, she nearly ran into her dad who was walking to the door already with her brother. "Holy crap!" she yelled, spinning on her feet and stumbling to the side and into the kitchen. "Super fail," Dylan called, turning back to glare at her as he drummed the air with his drum sticks.

Clara turned to glare at him, and then walked around the kitchen as she quickly put a portable breakfast together. Pop-tarts and a water bottle; not the tastiest of choices, but it did the job. She followed after her brother and Dylan and out the door, and soon realized that she had forgotten her umbrella as rain fell heavily onto her. She rolled her eyes and climbed into the car, already sensing that today wasn't going to be any good until she could get back to the warehouse.

She trudged up the steps to her school, using her bag to try and shield at least a little bit of the downpour that seemed to hang over her precariously. She finally made it to the overhang of the school, and walked up to Gloree, who was leaned against the wall bobbing her head to usual K-Pop music. Clara stood next to her, a little perplexed at how clear the music was ringing from the small ear buds. Even over the dull roar of the passing students, she could hear every drop of the beat and every word in her music. Gloree was completely unaware to Clara's presence, and as she calmly turned towards her, her eyes opened widely and a loud, shrill scream bellowed from her. Clara chuckled softly as she calmly watched Gloree collect herself, the color in her face slowly rising back to normal.

"Why do you sneak up on me like that?" Gloree asked angrily, stuffing her iPod into her bag. "I did no such thing. I simply walked up next to you; you're the one who's completely oblivious to the world as long as your music is screaming in your ears." Clara argued back, walking next to her through the front gates and into the school.

* * *

><p>School dragged on slower then ever before. The whole day, Clara could not keep her mind off the super computer. Even while taking down notes, she would find herself erasing words such as 'computer' and, many times, 'Ezio' after she would accidentally doddle them. She could feel the strong presence of the game in her bag at her side, and at some points, she couldn't sworn it was taunting her by laughing; wanting her to sprint from class and to the warehouse. She rolled her eyes and forced herself to look back to the whiteboard, lazily scribbling down the many math equations. Plus, she owed Gloree food after this. She had been texting and reminding her all day, and she was going to make sure she got her end of the deal, especially if she was missing Monster Ball for this.<p>

* * *

><p>"Did you really need a large?" Clara asked, placing her (in her eyes) noticeably lighter wallet into her bag and pulling it over her head and to the other shoulder. She glanced at Gloree who was happily sipping on her drink and carrying her large order of carneasada fries. Clara could've sworn Gloree was on the verge of skipping, so she averted her eyes, eager to get to the warehouse. "So where's this thing anyways?" Gloree asked half heartedly. "By the bay," she replied.<p>

Gloree stopped in her tracks. "The bay?" she yelled, and Clara shrugged with a half smile. Gloree stomped her foot down and made a pouty face. "That's such a long walk!" she yelled, twirling in circles. Clara rolled her eyes and stepped backwards to her side, rummaging back through her bag and pulling out her wallet again.

* * *

><p>'Food and iTunes card… Why do I feel I'm only good for my money?' Clara thought to herself, looking sideways to a now content Gloree. She couldn't help but smile though. Gloree and Clara had met three years ago at a Twilight premiere, and ever since they had been the closest of friends, nearly inseparable. They joked a lot that they were married; even changed their Facebook relationship status to say so. And Gloree really wasn't her friend for Clara's money. She was always genuinely there when she needed her, but the extra cash did come in handy when she did need to bribe her into things like this. The iTunes card didn't matter much to her though; she didn't even have an iPod. She always received them from relatives.<p>

"Sure is a lot of effort just to play a game." Gloree said between mouthfuls of Horchata. "When you see this thing you'll understand why. Plus, it's Ezio." Clara said; making an exaggerated love struck face. Gloree rolled her eyes. "You don't mind playing the game, even if it reminds you of _him_?" Gloree asked carefully, and could see Clara's mood drop some, along with the light in her eyes. Clara simply shrugged and said, "I can't allow him to rule over me, especially if it's over something like a game, or anything else he might've given me."

"But you continue to answer his texts and rush to his side when he 'needs' you?" Gloree asked, raising her hands to make quotation marks with her fingers. Clara glared at her.

"If you've got something to say, spit it out." Clara snapped.

"You need to drop his sorry ass, once and for all. It kills me to see you hurt and crumbled after you see him. I know you think you're doing the right thing by staying his friend, but he's just using you Clar. Sometimes you need to be the bad person and tell 'em to fuck off and die." Gloree said, patting her shoulder. Clara didn't want to admit it, but she was right. Ever since they had broken up, _he_ had been even clingier then when they were actually together. Always requesting her company and wooing her with sweet words he never even whispered of when they were a couple. But, it did indeed; make her fall apart every time she returned home from seeing him. She wanted so badly to scream at him everything she felt, after all the wrong he had done to her, but every time his name appeared on her phone, she felt her heart race and her thoughts melt.

Clara let out a long sigh, and reached in her bag to retrieve the game. "I need a man like Ezio. Better yet, I just need that sexy Italian assassin." She said as she wiggled her eyebrows at Gloree. Both of them laughed, the sour topic dribbling from their minds.

* * *

><p>Two sets of eyes stared at the doors of the old warehouse, wary to enter the cracked doors. A little over an hour later and the girls had finally made it to their destination, but of course, they had to stop off at nearby 711's a few times for refreshments, and a few smokes for Gloree. Clara smacked her lips, and walked forward. "Well, let's go!" she chimed, marching towards the doors. Gloree eyed the building suspiciously, feeling a low and uneasy feeling start to pool in the bottom of her stomach. "I dunno. This place… I don't like it." She said, cautiously walking after Clara. "Nothing happened when I was here yesterday," she replied, pulling her flashlight out and revealing the large room. As Gloree stepped through, and her jaw dropped at the huge piece of what ever it was that stood before them. "That's-", she started to say. "What I was telling you about." Clara finished, strolling over to the screen.

She picked the controller off the ground from where she had left it, and impatiently popped the game into the PS3. By the time she retuned to the spot in front of the screen, Gloree had already situated herself on the ground, eating her fries. Her eyes were stuck on the dark screen. Clara sat next to her, and took a moment to calm her nerves before turning the system on. She expected the same loud startup as yesterday, but completely forgot to warn Gloree. She scooted back some, and she apologized and explained what else was to come. Gloree only nodded and slowly moved back to her spot next to Clara, and watched the screen intently. "This is more epic then you're Aunts TV." Clara mumbled, and Gloree glared at her. "Excuse me if she doesn't have a TV the size of a car," she snapped, and Clara chuckled. "I was just saying."

The game loaded normally, and as she clicked her way to her account, she realized she would have to start all over again from the beginning. "Hmm… I wonder if the other account has already played it?" she asked aloud, and logged off and over to the 'SD-01' account she had seen yesterday. Low and behold, there was numerous game accounts already saved, including Assassins Creed II. "Booyah," Gloree said with a mouthful of food, and Clara giggled, and clicked the file. A small window came up again. "Start synchronization? This is a lot fancier then on my PS3." Clara said, clicking the yes option. Again, a window came up, but with what seemed to be detailed layouts and profile on Ezio, including a full body layout of him. Gloree and Clara both tilted their heads to the side, observing as yet another small window popped up with numbers flying down the center, forming codes that rang off a list every time it was completed. "Really fancy," Gloree said. Both the girls watched as the small windows seemed to each set off on one another, going down a list of operations that were showed in numbers and symbols neither of them understood. Everytime a sequence of number would complete, it would zoom off to a tab that would show up on some part of the schematic drawing of Ezio, then highlight a part of his body.

It was a long while until the process stopped, and then the outlined image of Ezio Auditore started to spin slowly, a bar in front of it also starting to load slowly, but then it paused. A sudden _beep_ rung from the screen, and a computer animated woman's voice said, "Finish synchronization?"

Gloree and Clara both looked at each other, and then back at the screen, simultaneously saying, "Yes?" The bar that was once loading slowly started to pick up pace, and then everything quickly became hectic. The low whirling noise from behind the screen became a blaring screech, making both of the girls shoot to their feet and start to back away. All around the computer lights started to flip on from the inside, illuminating the inner workings of it. The lights eventually made their way to the bottom of the structure, and what the two once couldn't see before were huge, thick wires braised together running along the ground like snakes and towards the back of the computer. Sparks began to arch off at different ends of the jagged pieces that erupted from it, shooting towards the back. Everything was aiming backwards, and even in Clara's terrified state she found herself moving towards the back of the structure slowly. Gloree looked back to the screen; the bar read 45%. "What the fuck-", she said, but something arched off powerfully from the top of the computer and to the back where the girls couldn't see.

A strong gust of wind blew in from the doors, but instead of ending quickly it stayed consistent, seeming to pulsate with every electric charge from the constant arch of lightning coming from the top. As Clara began to round the corner of the computer, something unbelievable caught her eye. She could only see the side of it, but it seemed to be a massive water filled orb that had multiple thin and thick wires connected to it, and at the top was another jagged piece of computer connecting with the lighting. Clara's jaw dropped, and as she started to move closer, Gloree grabbed her arm and moved away from it. "We've got to go!" she yelled, grabbing their bags and moving towards the doors. "No, we've got to see what happens!" Clara yelled back against the loud wind. Always the adventurer; even if it could get her killed, she was staying.

"No, we're leaving _now_!" Gloree yelled, but Clara pulled her arm from her grip and moved back towards the back of it. As she rounded the corner fully this time, a huge gust of wind hit her, knocking her to her side. "Clara!" Gloree yelled, running to her side and trying to get her to her feet. But as soon as Gloree saw what Clara's eyes were transfixed on, she too was unable to pull her gaze from it. From inside the glowing, bright blue orb, something was twisting and spinning wildly. It was another orb about the size of a full grown person if they were to curl into a fetal position, the lightning shooting directly onto it. The noise and lights were only growing stronger, and the wind that was beginning to swirl around them like a tornado too, and as they only stared, the bar on the screen clicked down.

97%... 98%... 99%... "Complete." said the computerized woman's voice again, and in an instant the lighting stopped arching and swarmed into the orb. It disappeared into the inner orb, and then exploded, shooting out through the orb and all around them. Clara and Gloree quickly ducked to escape its deadly ring, listening as it hit everything else in its path. The walls and objects in the room rang loudly, the wind blowing almost quick enough to move them from their spot, but then… it all stopped. The lights all around them died down suddenly, the wind stopped, and it was all quiet. Except…

Clara peeked out from between her arms, afraid that if she moved, something would attack. She was honestly expecting an alien to suddenly shoot from a corner and rip her to pieces, but as she lifted her head cautiously, she tried to see around the dark room. The only things moving anymore were the pieces of papers fluttering back to ground around them, and the soft humming of the screen filled the eerily quiet room. But there seemed to be another noise swarming around them. As Clara and Gloree both stood, inspecting each other for any injuries, they soon began to scan the room around them, searching for the strange noise. It sounded almost like water sloshing around in a pool, but muffled by something over it. They both looked at each other, about to ask something, when the lights around the computer began to turn back on.

Both of them prepared to run out of the room this time, but when a figure thrashing around in the watery orb was silhouetted by the lights, both of them gasped. A man was thrashing and pounding against the flexible walls of the orb, trying to get out, his cried muffled by the water around him. And as the light finally came back on again, a ring of light from the bottom of the orb illuminated the entire thing, and the man inside. "Is- is- is-", Gloree stuttered, and Clara was equally frozen with shock. The older robes and colorful crimson designs of the man's clothes was one thing to quickly question and toss aside, but when his white hood moved from over his covered face, it became very clear, and very apparent that the man inside wasn't just any man. Inside the orb, an Assassin from Clara's favorite game was struggling to free himself from the water, bubble escaping from his scared lips. As his light brown eye met Clara's and his wispy dark brown hair moved from his face, she knew that it was Ezio Auditore, even if the more intelligent side of her mind continued to deny such wild, impossible, and even for an instant, miraculous possibilities.


	4. Ch 3: Sleeping

***click teeth together* Yu know I had to delete and re-upload this story three times because either something was wrong with FF or my internet, but overall, I threw a fit. :3 Anywho, here's chapter 3! Things are picking up nooouuuw!**

**Pink Ft. Adam Lambert-What'ya Want From Me (New 2010 Re Mix) **

**The Grizzly Bears-Slow Life**

**Placebo-Running Up That Hill**

It was a long, drawn out moment as they both stared at what they were now almost completely convinced was Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed, no matter how outlandish and impossible it seemed. But as they stood in their stupor and he thrashed for help, the hidden blade appeared from his wrist and he began stabbing at the orb. Small holes were punctured, but only streams of water began to spit out. Though Ezio thrashed and screamed under the water for help, Gloree and Clara were unable to move for the longest time. It wasn't until his expressions began to soften and his arms stop thrashing around as violently that the realization of a human being drowning in front of them finally dawned on Clara, and she screamed. "Oh, my fuck! We've got to get him out!" she yelled, running up to the orb and slamming her fists against it. Under her hands the orb was squishy and flexible, but was still tough and thick. "Ezio! Ezio!" she screamed, slamming her fists against the shield, trying to keep him conscious. His eyes were slowly starting to close, the air bubbles from his mouth coming less then the stream before. Her adrenaline was starting to race swiftly through her blood.

"Gloree help!" She yelled, looking back at Gloree who was searching around for something to hit it with. "I'm trying, I'm trying!" she yelled in response, finally grabbing a chair and lifting it over her head. Clara ducked in time as the chair shattered into pieces when it came in loud slapping contact with the orb, but it didn't do much. The water from Ezio's many stab holes was still draining in spitting shots, but not nearly fast enough to save him. Clara paused for a fleeting instant to try and think of something as she watched Ezio fall faster from consciousness, and then she remembered. "Your pocket knife!" she yelled looking to Gloree swiftly. Gloree took off running to her bag across the room, and Clara returned to one of the holes.

She pried her fingers between the openings and tried to pull it apart, but it was barely ripping. She growled loudly as she used all of her power to rip it open, but it didn't work. "Ezio!" she screamed again, trying to fit her arm through the opening she had made. Water was spitting onto her body, but she didn't feel it, even as it ran up her nostrils and burned down her chest. She was able to thrust her arm into her elbow, and her hand grazed his knuckles. "Move!" Gloree yelled; her pocket-knife in her hand and the blade streaming through the air. Clara quickly pulled back and Gloree stabbed the orb, pulling the blade down through the plastic like cover. It cut like butter, and soon they were both hit by a wall of warm water that momentarily shoved them back to the ground and engulfed them. Clara quickly collected herself and hysterically looked all around the room for Ezio. He lied on his side, completely still a few feet from them. Clara gasped and scrambled over to him, slipping against the wet floor and trying to move her wet hair from her face.

She rolled him on his back, feeling the last of her hope start to seize at the sight of his pale face and motionless chest. She moved her arms in jerking motions over him, unsure of what to do until Gloree came up behind her. "Oh shit! Okay, I'll do the chest palpitations and you breathe for him!" Gloree said loudly, positioning her hands over his chest and looking at her. Clara nodded swiftly, nervously pinching his nose shut and pulling his jaw down to open his mouth.

"One, two, three, four, five- Breathe!" Gloree said, and Clara sucked in a deep breath, and then places her lips over his. Even in the midst of trying to breathe life into him, she couldn't help but feel how soft and full his lips were against hers, and then it all hit her that he was Ezio. That single thought was the most troubling of all, because of course, Ezio was only supposed to be a character from a game… 'A game.' She told herself. Again, Gloree compressed his chest and Clara breathed for him. Every time she came back up from his lips and there was no response, she began to feel her hopes dwindle farther into nothing. After nearly ten minutes of repeated procedures, finally, his chest sucked in on his own accord and they could both hear water gurgle up his lungs. Clara felt the warm water shoot from his mouth and somewhat into hers as she came from his lips quickly. He coughed and hacked, sharp and ragged breaths trying to fight past the water. "Oh shit!" Gloree cursed. She moved back as Clara rolled him onto his side, patting his back forcefully to try to get the remaining water out. Eventually he stopped hacking, and only breathed heavily. She could still hear the rattle in his lungs as he rolled onto his back, and he cracked his red eyes open. Clara stared down at him with wide eyes, waiting for some other sign that he was awake and still had a functioning brain.

"Ask him if he knows his name," Gloree said, crawling over to her side to look at him. "Do you know your name?" Clara asked sympathetically, supporting the back of his head with her hand as his brow furrowed. "Ezio- Ezio Auditore." He said. His voice sounded exactly like it did in the game; smooth and deep, but with a hint of raspy because of the water and of course his irresistible Italian accent. It made her skin crawl with shivers, and not only because of his lustrous voice, but because he confirmed himself who he was.

"Who are you?" he asked, his eyes closing again as he took a painful swallow of air. "Uh, that's not important right now. Just try to stay still and keep your breathing even." Clara said, moving a stray strand of hair from his forehead. He sighed loudly, and opened his eyes to look at her again. "At least tell me your name," he argued, and she half smiled. "Clara." She answered, and he closed his eyes as the corner of his mouth turned up slightly in a smirk. "Clara. Okay…" he said, letting out another deep sigh. "Okay?" Gloree repeated, leaning over a tad bit more to examine his face. "Ezio?" Clara asked, gently shaking his shoulder. He had fallen unconscious again, but was at least breathing normally. Clara leaned over him to rest her ear on his chest. She could hear the whisper of a rattle in his chest, and leaned back up. "I guess he's okay." Gloree said, sitting back on her hands and letting out a relieved breath.

As Clara repositioned his shoulders so he was leaning against her lap, she examined the room around them. In a matter of what was actually only a few minutes, they had gone from expecting to play a game to reviving an assassin. The water still flowed gently from the orb. It seemed that there was always a constant stream moving and renewing the water source inside, so he definitely would've been doomed if Gloree hadn't brought her knife this time. Clara felt an icy chill soak through her wet clothes and to her bones, and she shivered.

"Gloree?" she asked, and she looked over to her tiredly. "What've I done?" she asked, holding tighter onto Ezio's shoulders. In the midst of her inner turmoil and extreme worries, Ezio slept soundly in her arms, oblivious to the new world around him.

* * *

><p>"Howdy!" Steven answered his phone languidly as he lounged on his couch, potato chips in one hands and dipping sauce in the other. Steven was the kind of skinny, muscle guy who could eat anything and everything and not gain a single pound; a good portion of his day was either spent eating or messing around on his computer. Somehow he had a high metabolism… somehow. "Steven? Hi, it's Clara. Is Jesy there?" She asked frantically. "She already left on the business trip." He replied, boredom thick in his voice.<p>

"Damn! Um- I need, well, me and Gloree really need your help with something then." Clara said quickly, a hint of panic in her voice. Steven frowned and pressed the phone firmer against his ear. "What did you do?" he said sternly, and he could hear her scoff.

"I love how you have so much confidence in me." She replied flatly. He rolled his eyes.

"Spit it out." He said as he sat up and walked to the kitchen. "Well we're at the warehouse and-", but he cut her off. "The warehouse? Clara; were you messing with that computer thing?" He almost sounded like he was pleading, but it was just raw uneasiness. Steven was also the type of person who was easily upset by small things. "Yea, well that's where you come in. We need to get the hell out of here but it's pouring outside and-", but he cut her off again. "I don't even want to know what else you guys did, so I'm going to drive down there, pick you up, and we are going to have a serious talk kiddo." He said angrily, pulling his boots on and walking to the garage. "I'll be there soon. " He ended the call without a goodbye.

"Steven, wait!" Clara pleaded into the speakerphone, but the line had already gone dead. Clara and Gloree both stared down at the phone, and then at Ezio who was still leaning against Clara, unconscious. Clara stuffed the phone back in her bag and sighed, rubbing her cold hands across her face. "Heesh goung to flip." She said from behind her hands, clearly dreading when she had to confront him. Gloree nodded, and then stood. "Well, I'll get the rest of our stuff together and then we need to haul his ass outside." Gloree said, walking from the two. Clara nodded and formed her hands into to knuckles to rub her stinging eyes. "There was something in that water." She said aloud, and Gloree agreed angrily with her. Clara moved her hands and stared down at Ezio. At the sight of his sleeping, completely undisturbed face, it made her nerves calm some. But when ever she thought about when he was going to wake up and maybe assassinate them, it made her stomach do flips. "This is all your fault." She mumbled, tugging gently on one of the many brown locks of his smooth hair.

He shifted slightly in his sleep, and his face tensed suddenly. She gasped as he suddenly rolled onto his side and resettled his face completely in her lap, his arm throwing forward and wrapping around her hips. She tensed up as stiff as a board, and Gloree stepped from around the computer. "Is he awake?" she asked, and Clara shook her head quickly. "He moved on his own!" she hissed back, jabbing a finger down at him a few times. Gloree looked down and nearly laughed out loud, mostly because of how red Clara's face had gone. "Come help me get him up, we should go wait by the doors." Clara said, gently moving his arm from around her hips. He groaned, but didn't wake up as the girls looped their arms around his back and each took an arm over their shoulders.

"Holy fuck he's heavy!" Gloree groaned. Both of them struggled to lug him towards the two tall doors. Clara glanced down at how far back his feet dragged behind him and scoffed at the fact that he was almost their height, even hunched over. "Tall, too." She said, and Gloree rolled her eyes. They finally dragged him over to the doors, and both of them silently thanked the Gods when they saw Steven pulling up in the silver Nissan. Gloree pushed the door open with her leg as Clara pulled Ezio's hood back over his head, and they both trudged out. Ezio groaned and shifted as the rain hit him. Steven quickly got out of the car, his face darkening when he saw them. "Who the hell is that?" he asked loudly. "Please, I'll tell you when were in the car, but he's really heavy!" Clara said, wobbling over to the car. Steven groaned loud and opened the back door for them, and Clara carefully slid in, still supporting his side and pulling him in as Gloree let him fall against her. Clara gently laid him on his back and rested his head in her lap again as Gloree stuffed his legs in and shut the door, then running around the car to climb in the front seat. Steven climbed in and angrily slammed the door, making them all jump, even Ezio. "Okay, who the fuck is that?" he demanded as he turned in his seat to glare at her. Clara sighed, deciding to show him first, seeing as the explanation would sound hysterical. She slid his hood back and angled Ezio's face towards Steven. He looked down at the mysterious man, and his eyes widened. He looked between Ezio and Clara many times, not sure how to ask her what the hell a character from a game was doing lying unconscious in his car.

"He's a cos-player, right?" Steven asked, his mood calming some. Clara sighed and shook her head, turning his head back so he was more comfortable. "Okay seriously, what the fuck is going on?" he asked, looking at Gloree now. "And why are you two all wet?" he added. His eyes squinted as he noticed both of their red eyes, and then he threw his arms up in the air and brought them down with force on his thighs. "You two were smoking something! Did he overdose?" he yelled, becoming extremely annoyed. Clara and Gloree both told him to shut up, and his lips straightened into a line. "If we told you, you wouldn't believe us." Gloree said, leaning back in the seat and closing her eyes. He situated himself farther into the seat and crossed his arms. "Try me." He said, and Gloree glanced back at Clara through the rearview mirror.

* * *

><p>A whole hour had gone by of Clara and Gloree explaining everything that happened when they arrived to the warehouse. The whole time, he had looked like he was about to deny everything they said, but as he would take long moments to stare at Ezio, it became apparent that no one can look so strikingly similar to an animated character, unless he actually <em>was<em> him. He had stayed quiet the whole time, simply listening until the end when he wanted to see the inside of the warehouse. Gloree led him in, and Clara stayed with Ezio. She looked down at his face. One of her hands had rested on his chest and the other had gently lain on the top of his head, her hand stroking his soft hair up and down. She had worried that he would stop breathing at some point, so to be able to talk to Steven with full concentration she placed a hand on his chest to feel it rise and fall with easy breaths. During their talking he had stirred a few times, and when ever she would sooth him with her hands he quieted down, mumbling something in Italian that she couldn't understand. Her mind now accepted that they somehow had brought him to life from the game, but now she was trying to figure out what to _do_ with him.

She had a feeling that when he woke up he would be spooked and probably try to get away. She worried that if he did run, he would be hurt if he ran into the street or something. If he tried to scale a wall someone might call the police, and he could be arrested. What would they do with a man from a different time who was convinced he was an assassin? Better yet, an assassin who was best skilled at killing police? That would turn into the cities next big front page story and a historic massacre.

'I guess he'll just stay with me. No way in hell Gloree will be able to, and Steven has the girls to watch.' She thought calmly to herself. Now she had to think of a reason to give to her dad why there was an Italian man staying at the house. "Transfer student." She said aloud, and the doors opened in the car. Steven and Gloree sat back in the car, and Clara watched Steven nervously. After a long, harshly quiet moment he turned to her, his face mixed with different emotions. He looked down at Ezio one last time, and dragged his eyes up to her. "Well... I was not expecting something like this, but seeing as you two stumbled upon that thing, he's your responsibility. I'll help as much as I can, but with the girls I don't think that'll be much." He said, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. Gloree and Clara both let out a long sigh of relief, and Steven chuckled.

* * *

><p>He could hear muffled movements around him before he could open his eyes, but he knew there were people around him. From the sound of it, two girls talking quietly. That didn't alarm him too much, but when he heard the muffled talking of a man, his guard went up. He cracked is eyes open, but as soon as the dim light of the room he was in hit his eyes, he pinched them shut. His hands moved to cover his eyes, but he found his limbs sore and cramping.<p>

"He's awake!" He heard one of the girls say softly. He turned his head to try and see them, but he could only see blurred outlines of thin forms sitting next to him. "Ezio?" the other one said, and he could see a hand moving towards him. Her cool fingers moved softy over his forehead, and he felt a damp towel wipe across his skin. The coolness of the towel and her fingers soothed his quarrelling mind, but it couldn't stop the ache in his chest or the burning in his stomach. He began to feel extreme nausea, and weakly began to sit up. "Bucket-", the girl said as she moved her hand away, and he let his head hang between his knees, still trying to clear his eyes of the blur. He could see hardwood floor beneath him, and then a bowl was placed under him.

Immediately, any contents from his stomach were pouring from his mouth. He coughed and spit, trying to empty the foul feeling from his body. After he had collected some clear thoughts and was able to speak, he slowly lifted his head to look around him. He could see clearly now; two girls sitting in front of him with a tall, thin man to his left at the other side of the room he was in. Except this room wasn't like anything he's ever seen before. There were pictures of people's faces all over the walls, and mysterious boxes with lights glowing from them in separate corners. On the ceiling were what looked to him like tiny lanterns, illuminating the room with a soft orange hue. He looked back at the girls, observing them.

The one on the left had long, dark wavy brown hair. She was light skinned and thin, her face twisted into worry as she looked at him. He had to admit, she was very pretty. The other girl was her same size, but darker skin and curlier, darker hair. She looked a little less concerned and a little more confused by the way her eyebrows arched downwards. His eyes shot over to the man standing, wary of his angered looking face and looming shadow he casted against the floor. He looked back to the girl with the wavy hair. "Where am I?" he asked, feeling nausea creep back up his stomach. Her lips turned up into the softest smile he had ever seen.

"You're at my house. Do you remember who I am?" she asked, leaning forward. His brows furrowed again as he struggled to remember her. He suddenly remembered being swallowed completely in water and her face screaming at him from behind some sort of sphere he was in. Then, blackness, and waking up again with her leaning over him, her face askew with worry.

"Clara." He said, and she nodded. "This is Gloree, and that's Steven. We… Found you in that water thing you were trapped in." It wasn't exactly a lie, because it was somewhat true. The complete story would have to come later when he was more adapted to this new time. "Do you know what time you're in?" she asked, and before he could open his mouth at answer, he again observed all the advanced looking mechanisms all around him. "No." he said plainly, feeling worry start to crawl up the back of his mind. "You're in two-thousand eleven." She said, and his eyes nearly bulged from his skull. "You're not in Florence anymore Ezio, you're in America." She added, and he only began to feel the crushing weight of confusion start to rest heavier on his shoulders. "How- Why-", he tried to ask, but didn't exactly know how to respond. He sat up straight and looked down at his wrist, expecting to see his hidden blade. Instead he saw the dark skin of his wrist staring back at him.

Then he noticed he was no longer in his usual robes, but his loose under shirt and his pants only, his feet stripped of his boots. He felt exposed and vulnerable in front of the strangers, no matter how kind they were being to him. He remained calm on the inside, but in his head he started to formulate a plan on how to escape, even if it meant abandoning his robes and blade. But of course, he would come back for them later. Now, he just wanted to get out. "You're trying to find a way out, aren't you?" Clara asked, and his eyes shot to hers. She had a half smile across her lips and her head was cocked to the side, observing his stern face. He was completely shocked. "If this were your time I wouldn't have even of brought you to my house, but since you didn't even know what time you're in, I can't allow you to run off. These days things are hell of allot more dangerous." She said plainly, and he glared at her. He was literally frozen with fear. He didn't know what to do because he thought she was reading his mind, but she of course, having had played the game so much knew exactly what was going on. What she wasn't expecting however was for him to suddenly thrust his arms forward and push them both back out of their seats. Clara's face molded into morbid surprise as she fell back, watching as Ezio charged to her window. He pried it open, snapping the lock off and mounted the edge. Clara scrambled onto her side and moved towards him, but he gave her one last look back and stepped forward. "Ezio!" she yelled, scrambling to her feet and running to the window.

"Fuck that! Let him run if he's going to be like that!" Steven yelled, slamming her window shut. "He's just confused!" Clara yelled at him as she ran from her room and nearly threw herself down the stairs. She flung the front door open in time to see Ezio jogging across the street in the rain and towards the canyon. "Ezio?" she called after him, and he stopped in the middle of the road. The only thing lighting up the night around them was the street lamp of the deserted neighborhood intersection her house was placed on. It was rare moments like these she was thankful she didn't have neighbors who were nosey and quick to call the police at the smallest of sounds.

"Please; I know you're confused, but I can explain everything." She pleaded, taking small steps towards him. He stood with his side to her, peaking from the corner of his eye. "You can even have your blade back, I wasn't trying to keep it from you. I was drying everything for you." She said, and he looked more towards her. He furrowed his brows, unsure of why they would be wet, but then he remembered the water he had been submerged in. "Please, just let me help you." She yelled over the rain, blinking past it as it soaked her to the bone. He sighed heavily, thinking over his options. Either he could run and learn himself of this already strange and terrifying new world on his own, or listen to the girl who had saved his life and was offering to help. As he started to open his mouth to say something, the wind thrashed forcefully against the trees on the other side of the road, instantly gaining his protection.

To Clara, it looked like he was turning to walk away, so she stepped forward into the street. The lights that blinded her from her side suddenly made her stop in her tracks, and then the familiar screech of car tires confirmed what she had questioned in an instant. A car turning the intersection wasn't going to have enough time to break before they hit her. Her mind seized into darkness as her body curled into a ball, and all she could process after that was something hard and heavy slamming her to the ground, and then her head making sharp contact with the pavement.


	5. Ch 4: Explaining

**I hope everyone who has read this so far is finding it interesting enough to continue reading. :3 If not, I apologize… I have failed you. I do ****not**** own any of the Assassin's Creed games or any other big name product mentioned in this story. **

**Green Day-Novocain**

**Bjork-Unravel **

She awoke to the sound of men shouting arguments, but she couldn't decipher the words they used. It was as if she had cotton in her ears, and when she opened her eyes to the night sky, the rain stung her hazy vision. "Agh." She garbled, covering her eyes with her shaking hands. "Will you two shut up? She's awake!" Gloree yelled, hovering over Clara. She was still sprawled across the ground on the side of the soaked road, her head throbbing with pain. "What am I doing down here?" she asked, her words slurring as she looked to her side to see Steven and Ezio walking over to her. They both looked furious. "You don't remember?" Gloree asked astonishedly, one of her eyebrows arching up.

* * *

><p>To Clara, it looked like he was turning to walk away, so she stepped forward into the street. The lights that blinded her from her side suddenly made her stop in her tracks, and then the familiar screech of car tires confirmed what she had questioned in an instant. A car turning the intersection wasn't going to have enough time to break before they hit her. As she curled her body inwards and pinched her eyes shut, Ezio was already covering the distance between them in a blaze. His body hit hers with implausible force and they both went rolling back onto the side of the street, but not without the car clipping his heels. Clara's head made sharp contact with the pavement as Ezio landed on his side. He quickly unwound his arms from around her and looked down to her unconscious face, guilt washing through him.<p>

* * *

><p>Clara sat up unsteadily, looking over to Ezio. The two men were both standing side by side, rigid with tension as they stared at her. "You pushed me out of the way?" she asked, and he nodded once stiffly. The corner of her lips twitched upwards in a smile for a small instant, and then she looked forward at the street. "Where did the driver go?" she asked. "That bastard took off in his… thing!" Ezio yelled; throwing his arm in the direction the man sped off in. "Don't try to make <em>him <em>sound like the bad guy. If you hadn't of ran off into the street none of this would've happened!" Steven yelled directly at him. "But _I _pushed her out of the way!" he responded, stepping towards him. "It's still your fault dip-shit!" Steven took a step toward him, and then Ezio moved again.

"Fucker!" Ezio yelled.

"Piece of shit!" Steven yelled back.

"Stronzo!"

Their chests were nearly touching now as they shouted silly insults back and forth. She struggled to her feet and walked over to them, pushing her small body between them and pushing them apart. "Both of you just shut the fuck up!" She yelled; her head hammering with every one of her rapid heart beats. "He's blaming me for something I didn't even do!" Ezio bellowed, shoving his chin in Steven's direction. He tried to step past Clara but her hand remained on his chest, pushing him back. "'Cuz you DID do something wrong you moron!" Steven retorted, and Clara pushed him back as well. "ENOUGH!" she screeched, her body shaking as she did. Both of them looked down at her, their mouths closing. Gloree sighed in irritation and pulled a cigarette from her bag she had had slung over her shoulder the entire time and carefully lit it under the rain. She grumbled and moved to the porch, the sprinkles of rain starting to dampen her smoke. Clara sighed irately and rubbed her temples, then looked at Steven. "Steven, thank you so much for helping with everything and being so protective, but I can handle it from here." She explained coolly, but he opened his mouth to protest. "Honestly, if you try to help any farther you two are going to end up brawling. Please, just leave." She said sternly, her patience wearing thin. Steven stood solid for a short moment before nodding and walking past her, but pausing to glare at Ezio. "If anything happens to her...", but he didn't finished his sentence. He stalked off to his car and sped off, kicking up mud in his wake.

She felt some of the stress rise from her shoulders and then turned back to Ezio. Both of them stood staring at each other for a spell, completely entranced by the energy they were letting off. Clara half smiled at him, taking a small step towards him and tilting her head towards her house. It was a silent question of whether or not he was staying, and he nodded at her. She silently sighed in relief, glad that he was deciding to listen to her instead of run off and get killed. She did not need a dead body on her conscience the rest of her life. They both walked up to the porch where Gloree sat taking long drags from her short ciggy, and she stood, moving aside for them to walk in first. Clara stopped next to her, watching as Ezio cautiously entered the house and began to examine it with wide eyes, momentarily forgetting he was in a different time and simply trying to figure out what has changed since his time. Clara rubbed the back of her head where a significantly sized bump was growing. Gloree let wispy trails of smoke shoot from her nose and she looked over to Clara. "I need to head home." She said, and Clara nodded. "I'll text you later." She responded, and stepped off of the porch and into the rain, pulling her hood up. Clara turned to the door and walked in, shutting it gently behind her. She walked around the entrance and into the living room where Ezio was staring at the wall with family photos on it.

She walked up next to him and felt sadness ring through her when her eyes fell on the portraits. "This is your mother?" he asked, looking to her and pointing to the woman with the wavy blonde hair who was smiling and holding a baby boy in it; her brother. "Yea." She simply replied, staring at the photo. Ezio examined her sad face and understood; she was no longer here with them. "She died a year ago; breast cancer got the better of her." Clara said sadly, looking down to her wet shoes. Ezio dropped his gaze from her, and nodded. "I'm sorry to hear that." He said respectfully, and turned to look at the rest of the living room. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, eh?" she asked, pushing the sad thoughts from her mind and focusing on the problem at hand. Ezio shrugged and looked back to her. "It's okay if you do. I know I have a lot of explaining to do." She said, elbowing his arm gently. He quirked his lips up in a half smile, then turned to face her as she tugged on the sleeve to his shirt. She led him into the kitchen which was to the left and around the corner. A small table was set in the center amongst a colorful kitchen, displaying traditional table ware and other such things. She pulled a chair out for him and he sat, observing the new walls. "Are you hungry, or thirsty?" she asked. "Water would be fine." He said without looking at her, and more at the large block of wood that held the kitchen knives. 'At least if anything happens I can get to a weapon quickly.' He thought, unconsciously mapping his escape route if such things were to happen. Ezio twisted his wrist and felt the shirt scrape across his naked skin, unable to shake the uneasy feeling he had without the blade in its usual spot.

But as Clara gently laid the glass of cold water in front of him and sat down across the table, his thoughts of possibly having to kill her melted away. She looked to small to do any real damage, but from his experience, he wasn't too quick to judge anyone just by their appearance. 'So!" She interrupted his thoughts with a small out burst, and then she leaned forward onto the table. "What do you want to know first?" She asked, smiling.

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><p>It was a long night for both of them. For Ezio, absorbing everything she had to explain, and Clara, having to actually explain it. She led him through every detail as she gave him a tour of his new surroundings and answered every question as thoroughly as possible. She had the utmost patience with him when he didn't understand the topic at hand, and tried her best to simplify confusing things such as her laptop or game systems. Even music was somewhat new to him. He explained that the regular townsfolk would come rushing at you with their guitars and harass until money was thrown at them, but nothing like when she played her radio and Dub-step came shouting from the speakers. All in all, it took all night to explain almost everything around her house. She thanked the heavens that he grasped the idea of a toilet quickly, seeing as she did not know how they relieved themselves from the time he 'came from'. At the end of their night they both sat on her bed as she showed him how a cell phone worked, teaching him how to read the screen and press the correct buttons to perform the wanted actions. It surprisingly only took him a couple of tries to learn to dial a number, but texting was a completely different story. Clara used Gloree as her guinea pig as he tried to spell words like Hello, but came out 'Ghelklpo'. His thumbs were untrained to push in the small buttons of her Blackberry, but he would eventually learn.<p>

They both sat against her head board of her bed; Clara watched as he struggled to punch in the right words, and Ezio gave rapt attention to the phone, determined to at least type a few words correctly before morning. Eventually, as he actually started to talk instead of asking questions, they began to tell stories of each other so better introduce themselves, seeing as their technical introduction was from behind a globe of water. Clara shared her current life story; how her mom died and how she now lived with her dad and brother, and how she was nearly done with school and planed to be a writer. Ezio told his up until the point he was at with her, and she sighed uneasily. Her story of how he came to appear before her would have to wait until morning, where she would have more time to better explain. When morning finally did come, they had fallen asleep against the low light of the phone in his hands.

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><p>Ezio had slumped down against her soft mattress and many pillows, but as he woke and looked up around him, he never remembered pulling the blankets over him, an especially never retrieving his blade which was now sat next to him precariously. He looked up for Clara and found her sleeping on the bench of her large window, a blanket pulled around her shoulders. She was half leaned against the window seal as if she had been looking out the window before she fell into a slumber. Ezio sighed and sat up, his eyes still tired but his body and mind already alert. He grabbed the blade and snapped the forearm plate back into it's place, revolving his wrist to make sure it was a comfortable fit. He stood and walked over to Clara, looking down at her peaceful face. Even as he moved a stray hair from her cheek she didn't move. 'Too vulnerable.' He thought, sitting down at the end of the bench softly as to not jostle her. He couldn't help but stare at her soft face, unmoving in sleep. If he didn't have the trained eye to tell whether someone was dead, he would think she was. She was so quiet it almost made him want to reach over and shake her to make sure she really was alive. It was moments like these he wished he wasn't so easily swayed by beautiful girls, because like almost every other time, he found himself already playfully crushing over her. But he didn't have to worry about waking her.<p>

Her Blackberry started to ring loudly with noise from an incoming call, and her head shot up immediately, her eyes half lidded as she scrambled from her spot and stumbled over to her bed. She threw the pillows and blankets about to search for the source of the loud noise, and finally fumbled to answer her phone. "Hullo?" she said groggily, and Ezio could heard Gloree yelling on the other line. "You've been sending me texts all night! Were you two Rolling or something?" she complained. "No, I was teaching him how to use a phone- So stop yelling at me." She said, almost like a sad child who was getting in trouble. Ezio couldn't help but smirk. Clara hung the phone up angrily and fell forward onto her bed, a loud _whoosh-_ing sound leaving her body. She said something, but the covers of the bed muffled her. "What?" he asked, standing and sitting on the bed next to her. She turned her head so she was looking at him. "I'm hungry." She said, a silly smile spreading across her lips. Ezio nodded and let himself fall back onto the bed next to her, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the small lights on her ceiling which he thought were still tiny lanterns. His head craned back and again observed the walls around him, unable to keep his eyes from wandering.

That's when he saw his face plastered all over the far corner of her room. He shot to his feet and walked over to it, feeling a chill run down his spine. In an instant, his view on her changed. It went from a girl saving his life that he was crushing over to a girl trailing him, trying to take advantage of him somehow, or maybe even assassinate him. Maybe he was wanted in this new place and she was luring him in; his mind raced with many different views on this. He turned back to her as she was sitting up from the bed, fixing her twisted clothes. He stomped over to her and spun her around swiftly. He grabbed her arms roughly and she gasped, fear coursing through her as she saw the anger in his dark eyes. "Why is my picture all over the walls?" he yelled, shaking her. She whimpered against his iron like grip and tried to pull his hands of. "Answer me!" He yelled, shaking her again. "You're hurting me!" she cried, her eyes starting to glaze over in tears. He pushed back the small pang of sympathy as her face twisted into fear. "I said answer me!" He yelled again, pulling his hand back and letting the hidden blade shoot out. He raised the tip to her throat and she let out a soft sob, her hands clasping around his wrist to try and push him back. "Ezio, please let me explain!" she pleaded as his hand only pushed farther towards her, the tip of the razor sharp blade cutting the skin of her throat.

She flinched away from the blade, which only made her cut worse. It sliced across her skin all the way to her ear, and she let out another sob, but this one was thick was tears. They easily cascaded down her cheeks as she stared into his enraged eyes, trying to find some sort of mercy in them. She began to shake violently as she felt warm blood leak down her neck, fearing that this would be her last moment of life.


	6. Euphoric

**Beh-hehehehe. (That's my evil cackle.) Oooooh yuss. **

**Disclaimer: I do ****not ****own any of the Assassin's Creed trilogies and any other big name product mentioned in this story.**

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><p>"Stop!" Clara yelled, shooting straight up from her sleep. Her eyes were wide and unable to see anything in the dark and unknown room. Her breaths came in ragged hiccups as she scanned the room she was in, and then she remembered as she heard Ezio groan tiredly next to her on the makeshift bed they had put together in an abandoned building. 'Running...' She thought tiredly. She looked down at him and he was rubbing one of his eyes as the other looked up at her. He lifted his head abruptly at the sight of her distressed face, and he rubbed her back. "Clara? What's wrong?" he asked, and she closed her eyes as relief washed over her. She pulled her long hair up into a tie and lay back down and rolled onto her side to look at him. The back of her hand rose to run her fingers over the stubble on his chin, and she pulled the side of her lips in. "I had a dream of when you had the blade to my neck because you thought I was luring you in to kill you." She said, dropping her hands to run over the engraved metal plate over his forearm. His eyes darkened and she could tell he was feeling guilty about that day. He looked under the jaw and saw the long scar he had created, mentally stabbing himself in the neck for causing her harm. He scooted closer to her and moved the arm she had her hand on over her waist, leaning his forehead against hers.<p>

"Mi Dispiace." He said quietly, and she giggled softly. "No need to be. I'd probably attack someone if they had my face plastered all over their walls, too." She said with a smile, and he chuckled. Her hand moved over his cheek and back, her slender fingers tracing the line of his jaw. Their legs shifted over each others and her knee ran up the inside of his thigh slowly, making his lips curl in a smile and his eyebrows arched up. "Never again." He said in a whisper as he craned his neck forward to place a soft kiss on her lips. Her eyes fluttered shut against the light contact, and when he saw her react the way he wanted her to, he moved onto his elbows to lean over her.

Her waist twisted and her arms looped around his neck to pull him down this time for a full kiss. His arm that was against her side looped around her, his hand pressing flat against her back. Her leg arched up and around his hip as he lavished her with kisses, their lips sliding softly and their tongues darting out to play. She's never gotten used the overwhelming and euphoric feeling of just kissing him; his soft, full lips moving against her in ways she'd never experienced before she kissed him. And as his mouth began to trail down her jaw and place open mouthed kissed along her neck, his hand that was once on her back ventured down to trace the smooth curve of her bottom and thigh, then back up to rest on her hip. His thumb playfully moved under the band to her jeans and she rocked her hips towards him, encouraging him to move farther. His mouth moved farther down her neck and his tongue licked gently against her collarbone just as his hand slipped into her jeans, and then slid his fingers languidly against her soft insides; a loud moan escaped her lips, and he smiled against the skin of her neck as her hips rocked up into his touch.

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><p><strong>8D R&amp;R PLEEAAASE!<strong>


	7. Ch 5: Ripples

**Har har har. Who's going to see the midnight premiere at Bonita? That is if anyone lives in California and lives near Bonita. Haha. And when I say midnight premiere I mean for Pirates of the Caribbean. Anyhow! Enjoy the next chapter my lovely's3**

**Chrono no Kanashimi-Chrono Crusade Soundtrack**

**Lips of an Angel-Hinder**

**Cosmic Love-Florence and the Machine**

"I said-!" Ezio started to bellow at Clara, but she hastily reached behind her, grabbed her phone and brought it forward, stabbing the corner of it into his temple. He fell to his side with a mangled shout and released her, but not without tracing the blade back against her skin and making another thin cut across her neck. She yelped at the intense sting and scrambled backwards across her bed and nearly fell off in attempt to find her feet beneath her. Her eyes were wide with alarm as her hand covered the fresh slices on her neck. The feel of her warm blood leaking between her fingers made tears spring to her eyes. This is not what she wanted at all. "Now listen to me!" She choked out, biting her bottom lip to steady her trembling voice. Ezio looked up from his spot on the floor as he held his head. He felt as if his head had just been flattened between two mallets. "How do you expect me to explain anything if you're cutting me up and screaming in my face?" she questioned him loudly, her finger pointed at him strictly.

Realization of his own urgent futility hit him, and he averted his eyes from her. Next to his feet where they once stood were small droplets of blood. He looked back to her hand, noticing just how badly he had cut her. "I understand that you're confused, but I'm not going to do anything to hurt you. I can explain everything today, but you can't go cutting me. I will NOT tolerate that anymore." She finished, backing gradually towards the door. His brow furrowed in curiosity. "Anymore?" he asked, and she promptly looked down as a flush flew across her cheeks. "I'm going to… clean up, and when I get back, I will be happy to answer anymore of your questions. But please, don't cut me anymore." She again said quickly, turning as soft sobs started to tumble from her lips. She speedily left her room and slammed the door behind her. She rushed down the hall and into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and leaning against it. Truth be told, she was horrified to go back into that room. She wanted greatly to help him and take responsibility for her actions, but the prospect of him having another outburst made her bones rattle.

Next time he could easily slice her throat, and not just cause serious scars; but she continued to tell herself that she needed to finish what she had started. Ezio had every right to act the way he did, and everything he did in the future should be expected. 'I have to fix this.' She thought sullenly to herself as her eyes pinched shut to try and stop the torrent of tears continuing to roll down her face. She pushed off the door and moved in front of the mirror to inspect her cuts. When her hand peeled away, the soft suction of already drying blood made her skin crawl. When she saw just how much blood there really was, her vision and head began to spin. She couldn't handle the sight of her own blood, but anything else involving blood and gore was something she was quite interested in. She gripped the edge of the sink as she struggled to stay standing, but found it impossible as she slid down the side, moving her hand back over her slices.

Ezio stood at her door as he cleaned his blade off against his own pants, and then retracted it back against his arm. He grabbed the door knob and opened it unhurriedly, but was hesitant to walk into the hallway. He had heard her stomp into the bathroom and slam and lock the door behind her, and although he knew it was only natural reaction after he nearly killed her, he still felt a pang of hurt that she would do such thing. It was his idiot side of him being a conceited child. He was also finding it hard to believe that she was still so willing to stick by him and have such patience with him after his outburst. She really was one of a kind in his eyes. He stepped from her room and walked down the hall, stopping outside the bathroom door.

Clara jumped from where she sat against the wall when she heard soft knocks at the door, knowing it was Ezio. "Clara? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- It's just that-". Clara interrupted him promptly, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "It's fine. I'll be out in a minute." Her words were jumbled and her breaths were short, almost labored. Something was also wrong, he knew it. "Clara? Are you okay?" he asked. She rolled her eyes. 'Yea, you just tried to slice me open. I'm fucking dandy.' Her thoughts were sarcastic. She sighed heavily and looked at her hand again, but felt her stomach start to churn when fresh blood coated her hand. "Fuck- How much did you cut?" she asked aloud, and his thoughts stilled.

"How much are you bleeding?" he asked urgently. Worry began to quake through his body as he jiggled the doorknob. "I'm- Uh…" she tried to say, but she found that she was starting to feel oddly and unexpectedly sleepy. "Aw fuck." She said, and scooted sideways and unlocked the door, pulling her knees in before he opened the door. She still feared him. He quickly swung the door open, and felt a cold tremor run over his being at the sight of her sitting against the wall with more blood pooling under her hand. She was becoming increasingly pale and her eyes were half lidded as she looked up at him. He didn't say a word as he grabbed a towel off her sink and kneeled next to her. He moved her head to the side, his hand placing tenderly under her jaw. Even as blood leaked slowly from her, she soaked in the warmth of his hand. Mentally she was questioning herself how she could be thinking such things of the man who almost killed her. 'Blasted ADD.' She thought crossly to herself, and her inability to not immediately crush over hot men. He moved her hand gently to examine her wounds. He hadn't sliced any major arteries or veins, so he couldn't understand why she was bleeding so much. She hissed as he dabbed the towel against her cuts, and he tried to be gentler.

He leaned over the sink to wet the towel, and came back, giving her an apologetic glimpse as he did. She looked away quickly, trying to keep her body from shaking. "I'm sorry." He said quietly, looking back at her. She nodded delicately, forcing herself to give him a half smile. But as she accepted his apology, her mind started to wander to darker places. Back to times of when _he _would abuse and cut her. Under her clothes she carefully hid scars that _he _had created a long time ago. Before _he_ had done any damage, she could stand the sight of her own blood. It wasn't until after that one night she had been staying at his apartment that she started fearing the sight of her own bodily fluids. Apparently he had been having an atrocious day and decided to get wasted at the local bar and went home, where he found her curled up on his couch watching TV. She immediately knew that something hideous was going to happen to her, just by the feral look he gave her. When she kindheartedly tried to get him to bed, he accused her of trying to get rid of him so she could sneak off with another man. He beat her until she was choking on blood. He broke three of her ribs and had snapped the bones in her right hand when she tried to defend herself. After that, she couldn't breathe right or ever draw as good.

She was an artist before she met him. Now, she was starting all over again. It took her a couple months to recover, but even longer for her mental stability to return. It was a long while until she could smile again and look any man in the eye. _He _was also no longer a problem in her life. Her family had made sure that if he ever came near her again, they would unregretful-y slaughter him. For a long time he threw himself at her mercy, apologizing and begging for her forgiveness, but she would always put a wall up between them, no matter how many times she would give in and speak to him for short moments on the phone. She was weak and fragile against him, no matter how hard she fought to be stronger.

"Clara?" Ezio said her name in a low voice. She hadn't realized that he stopped dabbing at her neck until she was suddenly shot from her thoughts and back into reality. Her eyes opened and she looked to his concerned face. "Is everything okay? Err, well I mean," he paused to search for the right words, and she rolled her eyes again. "I'm as fine as I could be." She responded halfheartedly. He dropped his head in shame as he stood, offering his hand to her. She cautiously took it and he hoisted her up, resting his other hand at her shoulder to make sure she didn't fall sideways. In his view she still looked too pale to be fully recovered from her dizziness. She nodded at him and turned to the mirror, carefully turning her head to examine the cuts that would eventually add to her maze of scars. "Damn." She said, a half smile creeping onto her lips. Ezio stared at her speechless, unable to comprehend what she could be smiling about. "At least you know your blade is good and sharp." She mumbled, starting to rummage through her cabinets. He stared at her in shock, processing her words in his mind to be sure he heard her properly. In her mind she was throwing bad events away and immediately wiping the slate clean, not wanting to harbor any bad memories.

She pulled gauze, medical wrap and a bottle of liquid from her cabinets, a grumble vibrating from her chest. "This is gonna suck." She mumbled, and he tilted his head to the side in question. "Could you give me some privacy please? This part might be a little… Disgusting." She said wearily, uncapping the bottle. He nodded and left the bathroom backwards, keeping his eyes on her until the door closed and locked behind her. He pressed his ear to the door and listened intently. He wanted to know everything about this world he could learn, even if it meant encroaching onto her personal times. In the next few moments, he heard liquid sloshing from a bottle, then her sucking in a quick breath, and then muffled yelling. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" She cursed, and he could only imagine what she was doing to herself. Her cursing and muffled cries went on only for a few more moments, but felt like ages for his curiosity, and then the sound of tearing cloth. More rummaging noises sounded off, and then she swung the door open. A thin sheet of sweat covered her forehead, and she looked queasy. "What did you do?" he asked, looking to the white bandaging that was wrapped around her neck. Soft spots of blood trailed where the cuts were underneath. She brushed shoulders with him as she walked by and into her room, wiping the sweat with her hand.

"I had to clean the cuts, and it hurt like a bitch." She said angrily and sat on her bed. Her arms were locked straight to her side and her head hung down, trying to even out her breathing. He stopped in front of her and looked at her shaken form until she gazed up at him. "Please, no more cutting." She begged, and he sighed sadly. He took a seat next to her as her head hung back down, trying to think of something to say. Before he could find the words to express how sorry he was, she looked at him with tired eyes. "Guess I better start talking'." She said, gently bumping shoulders with him. "Uh, well…" His words were stuttered and unclear as he fought to form the right words. She simply chuckled and stood back up, walking over to her closet and opening it. She pulled a new outfit out and peeked back at him, and he quickly turned away from her. She eyed him one last time, and then turned to change. Secretly she really didn't mind if he looked. 'Fucking uncontrollable urges…' she thought sourly again, but couldn't stop a coy smile from spreading across her lips. The thought of his blade cutting easily against the skin of her neck was already becoming forgotten, especially when she heard him start to shift on her bed.

Ezio himself couldn't stop his drifting eyes from making their way back over to the spot she stood, just as she peeled her shirt from her body, revealing a slim and light skinned back. His jaw dropped when her pants slid down her curved legs, forming a dark puddle around her feet. Clara paused in her actions suddenly and looked back at him. He made it seem like her ceiling had become unbearably interesting, inspecting it with crucial eyes. She shook her head and turned back to her closet, pulling her jeans up her legs. Ezio trailed his vision along her ceiling and down her wall until he was watching her again, being sure to keep his face turned away from her. He thought she had a decent little body with all her clothes on, but she was breathtaking in the open. But as she turned to the side to grab something else from her closet, he spotted a jagged and large scar running down her right side along her ribcage. It looked almost as if she had something chewed at her until she was opened and then was haphazardly sewn together. She pulled her shirt over her head carefully and turned back to him, but he was not quick enough to avert her staring when his eyes fell on her chest. She gave him an irritated look despite her boost of confidence at his prolonged staring. "Ahem." She said loudly, and his eyes shot to hers. She smiled at him sardonically and he slowly looked away, feeling death creep up his spine from her cold eyes.

"You can't go out in public dressed like that." She said, her thoughts changing rapidly and suddenly becoming aware to his messy and out of date clothes. He looked back to her with a stubborn look, and she shrugged at him. "Unless you want people staring at you and mocking you, you need to change." She said, walking past him and out of her room. He pursed his lips and stood to follow her. "Let them say what they want, I can care less." He said, holding his head high. She was already in her dad's room rummaging through his drawers. "I know it doesn't matter now, but it will later." She called out, walking back to the door frame with a jacket and shirts in her arms. He stopped midstride and eyed the mysterious clothing, looking back to her 'matter-of-fact' glare. "You have to change." She said with a sigh, walking towards him.

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><p>The two looked like a couple that was trying to make their relationship work desperately. From the way he fidgeted in her father's black hoodie and sometimes shook his legs because of his pant legs pulled from inside his boots and to his ankles, to the way she occasionally loosened her scarf from around her neck to prevent annoying rubbing against her bandages. They both looked like they were fighting the urge to tear each other apart, but they were simply trying to look the complete opposite. Of course that was impossible for an assassin who wasn't supposed to exist and girl who wasn't supposed to be in such a situation. She looked over to him and bit her lip to conceal a smile as he awkwardly tugged at the sleeves of the jacket. His arms were too long for it, seeing as her dad was much smaller then the six foot two Italian she walked to the bus stop with. 'Oh god, that's going to be one hard thing to explain.' She thought, dreading the notion. She was probably going to have to literally push him onto the bus.<p>

The two finally made it to the stop and she rummaged about her bag for money, but was quickly distracted when he momentarily threw his arms out, clearly aggravated. He began to curse quietly and form words in Italian, but she had no idea what he was saying. Then, an idea sprung to her mind. She walked behind him and easily slid the hood over his head, and his fidgeting stopped. When she came back around he looked at her with a foolish grin as he shoved his hands in the pockets. "Better?" she asked, pulling out her money. He nodded, feeling like a bigger idiot every time she corrected something he did wrong. He made a mental reminder to be more patient and ask for her help before he lost his cool. She smiled and turned to look down the lively street, the bus zooming towards them. Ezio was already on edge as it came closer and closer to them and the cars flying past them didn't help. "It's okay. Just stay behind me and don't say anything." She said; stepping back as the bus pulled up to the curb. An apprehensive groan rumbled in his chest as he stepped behind her. She giggled.

The doors opened and she stepped in, quickly feeding her money to the vender. The doors behind them closed, and she quickly thought to grab his hand from behind her and place it on the bar to their sides. He nearly threw himself against it as the bus moved. He felt himself begin to shake, his vice like grip making the bar squeak against his sweaty palms. He observed as she effortlessly leaned against the bar, pulling two tickets from the machine and looking back to grab his hand and lead him away from the bar. He let go of it reluctantly and followed close behind her as she walked down the aisle of the seats, people eyeballing him curiously and chuckling at his strange reactions. A small group of made-up, skinny bitches rolled their eyes and whispered cruel things about him as he smiled at them kindly. A shot of embarrassment hit him in the chest and he averted his eyes, keeping them on his feet as she led him to the very back. He fought to focus on her soft hand in his, but he couldn't block out the laughs and whispers that were targeted towards him. She made sure he had a firm seat before she sat herself and looked at him, beginning to worry at his suddenly down face. "You okay?" she asked softly, and he nodded sadly. "Hey, don't listen to what any of those _assholes _say." She said, being sure to raise her voice when she said 'assholes'. Ezio looked at her and nodded, a smile creeping across his lips when some of the strangers looked back to glare at her. She simply glared right back, not afraid to be heard.

"Don't worry, the ride is short." She said, patting his hand comfortingly. The bus took a sudden and sharp turn, forcing him to nearly fall over onto her. She snapped her head around to look at him, but wasn't expecting his face to be mere inches from hers. "Merda! Mi dispiace, Clara." He said fluidly, and blushed as his body was pressed tight against hers. As they sat back up, his hood fell back revealing his handsome face and kind eyes. He had an arm around Clara's shoulders to help her back up, and she smiled at him appreciatively, her eyes moving back to the front of the bus. The group of stuck up girls all had their jaws dropped at the sight of the gorgeous man who was really under the hood, and Clara couldn't help herself. "Way to show your true colors, you ugly hags." She said cruelly, glaring at them. One of the plastic faced girls gasped and abruptly pulled the cord. The driver hissed an insult under his breath and nearly swerved off the road as he moved to pull over, opening the doors for the high heeled pests as they stormed off the bus. "Serves 'em right." Clara said, fixing her scarf and sliding her hands through her long hair. Ezio was staring at her in doubt, unsure if he just heard the cruel words she had spat at them. He didn't think the kind girl he knew was capable of such things. She double glanced at him and arched an eyebrow. "What? They needed to be shut up for being so judgmental." She explained, clearly unashamed of what she had said.

"I thought you said it didn't matter what they said?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "It doesn't, so they technically shouldn't care what _I_ said." She said, looking away from his questioning stare. "But I saw how upset you were about it, so they needed to be shot down." She added, squaring her shoulders. "That's a little-", he began to explain, but she rolled her eyes and looked back to him. "I don't take kindly to complete strangers mocking or bothering people I care for." She said loudly, trying to get her point across. Ezio's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You care for me?" he repeated, a sly smile curling his lips up. She bit down on her lip and hastily turned to pull the cord of the bus. "Look! Our stop- Let's go." She said all in one word, standing and grabbing his hand and leading him carefully towards the door. He felt like he was walking on a boat that was bobbing uncontrollably on water; his legs moved like jell-o beneath him. The bus came to a stop and the doors opened. Clara stepped out with Ezio behind her, and in her hurry to avoid his question, she realized they had gotten off two stops early. "Damn." She hissed under her breath, and looked back to him as he readjusted his hood over his head. "Well, let's get going." She said, grabbing his hand and leading him down the busy street.

Ezio felt a rare blush heat his cheeks as she held firmly onto his hand. She seemed so confident in her actions, but underneath she was screaming with silly giggles and blushing madly. She hadn't made a move on a man like this ever since _he _happened. "So where are we headed?" His steps increased so he was walking at her side instead of being dragged behind like a lost puppy. "I'm taking you to where I found you." She said carefully, looking at him from behind her wavy bangs. Anxiety started to twist at his stomach. He wasn't really sure if he wanted to know how he came to this place, because all he could remember was water filling painfully into his lungs and then black washing over him. "When we get there, you have to remember to let me explain everything and try to keep your tempter under control. It'll be a lot to take in, but it'll be the truth, and then we can move forward from that point." She said evenly, giving his hand a light squeeze. "I don't know if I want to know what happened." He said sadly, and she looked to him.

"It's better to know then wonder. Not knowing will drive you insane." She explained, taking a turn at a corner and now walking down a quiet street. At the end he could see water at the horizon and boats lined at a dock. His suspicions began to rise. They stayed quiet the rest of the way, focusing on their own thoughts. Clara was stumped on how she would find the right words to tell him what happened with out confusing him or scaring the shit out of him. 'Baby steps.' She thought bitterly; she hated having to use that word to relate to a grown man. Ezio was lost in his own world again, remembering every detail that led him up to his spot here, kicking small puddles on the sidewalk and holding hands with a girl he barely knew but was oddly relaxed with.

* * *

><p>Ezio eyed the large, iron and rusted looking buildings they walked around. It was almost like a maze, but Clara effortlessly maneuvered through them until they came to one that was larger then all the others. She felt an unnerving familiarity with the building and its ill-omened open doors as they walked up to it. She released his hand and Ezio found himself wanting to grab hers again, not liking the bitter gusts of wind that rolled in from the water and hit him like a brick wall. That was just another thing he didn't like about this place. His home was filled with warm days, but here, it seemed to always be raining. She slowly opened the doors wider and looked back at him, nodding her head in the direction of the dark room. He followed her cautiously; his hand flexed back so the point of the blade stuck out. At a moments notice he was ready to kill if he had to. Clara pulled her flashlight from her bag and shined it on the super computer, but something was unusual now. It was completely off; no whirring noise or low glow of the screen. Whether someone had come around and messed with it too, or maybe the electricity died out, she didn't know, but it made her blood race with insecurity. Those thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind, not wanting to bring them up and worry him further.<p>

"This is where I found you." She said, looking back at him. His face was knotted in total unknowing terror, his eyes glued to the strange construction in front of them. His body was completely stationary, and the way he leaned backwards made her fear that he was about to turn on his heels and sprint the other way. "Ezio; It's all right." She said, placing her hand softly on his arm. He flinched under her touch and they both moved from each other. The sound of his blade sliding from its sheath made the cuts on her neck suddenly sting and she tried to steady her shaky hands. "It's alright," she repeated, moving in front of him and grabbing his hand with the blade boldly. She raised it and slowly moved his hand forward so it retracted. His eyes were glued on hers the whole time she touched him gently; she was trying her hardest to not show him any apprehension, but he could see it in the way her eyebrows arched downwards. When the blade was completely hidden, she pulled him behind the super computer bit by bit and they both gazed down at the destroyed globe he had appeared in. Her hand left his and she walked in front of the dried and crusted plastic, poking it with her foot. It let off a foul stench; like stagnant water and chemicals.

"When I and Gloree found you, you were inside of this and it was filled with water. You appeared out of nowhere, like lightning had carried you from somewhere and brought you here." She explained, speaking softly as he approached her. "I don't know how it happened, but we were playing a video game when it happened. And that video game- You were in it, Ezio." She said, and his eyes shot to hers. "The game is called Assassin's Creed, and you were the main character in it. Your father and brothers were killed and you took it upon yourself to kill the people who were responsible, right?" she asked, and his eyes darkened. He loomed over her as she explained, but despite his angered eyes she stood at rest. "Before you appeared here, Leonardo was deciphering a codex page for you, correct?" Her voice was shaking as the high pitched scrape of his blade started to ring in her ears, but still, she stayed put. "You used to not be real Ezio. You were created to be only a computer animation, but somehow, this device brought you here." She finished, and he took a short step at her. "But you're real now. You're a human being…" she paused for a minute. "And I can't put you back where you came from. You're stuck here now; I'm sorry-", she flinched as the rest of the blade shot from his wrist, and she held her breath, waiting for it to pierce into her chest. "There's the truth Ezio. I know it sounds outlandish, but that's it." She added, looking up at his anxious expression. There was a long moment as he just stared at her, but then, his lips started to tremble and he walked away from her quickly. He stomped over to the opposite end of the room and stood staring down a pile of papers, his blade still sticking from his jacket. "So you're telling me that I'm not real?" he asked. He turned to look to her again, his eyes glazed over and his face diverse with so many different emotions she couldn't sort through. "That I don't really exist?" he also asked, his voice wavering and cutting off at the end. She walked over to him quickly and unflinchingly took his face in her hands. "No. You're real now. I can touch you and I feel warm skin." She said, trying to alleviate his uncertainties, though she knew nothing she said would completely wave them away. "You can feel my hands?" she asked, and he nodded feebly.

"You are a human being now. I'm so sorry I tore you away from the world you thought was real, but I can't do anything to put you back. But I promise I'll help you in any way I can to make it easier. I'll always be here for you now." She said kindly, softly rubbing her thumbs over his cheeks. His russet brown eyes dropped from hers, and she dropped her hands from his cheeks, starting to back away in fear he might do something, but when he grasped her hands in his she stopped. A warm shiver ran along her fingers as he gently pulled her towards him, leveling his eyes back with hers. "I know I have caused you enough difficulty already Clara, but if it's not too much more to ask of, may I stay with you?" he asked, a flicker of hope shining in his eyes. Clara's eyes widened and he stuttered to say more. "If not I understand, because you live with others already, but… I don't have anywhere else to go." He finished, looking away from her and starting to release his grip on her hands. She tugged his hands back towards her and he looked back to her blushing face. "Ezio-", she started to say, but the many voices of men approaching the building they stood in caught her awareness. She swiveled on her feet to face the door and watched as shadows of at least three men move along the floor to the opening.

"Shit!" Clara hissed, scrambling to find somewhere to run. "We need to get out of here!" she whispered, grabbing his hand and leading him to behind the structure. She pushed him up behind the stand the water globe once sat on and stood flat next to him and listened.

"What the hell happened to the lock?" A man's voice said; it was deep and booming. "Someone broke it!" Another man said, but his voice was high pitched, almost a whine. Quick, light footsteps hurried towards the computer and Clara tensed, knowing at any moment they could walk around and come across them. She looked over to Ezio who seemed as calm as if nothing were around the corner, but she knew he was merely waiting and listening. Probably the best time to be around an assassin. "Way to go Einstein, someone fucked with the damn thing, too." Said the man with the booming voice, walking up next to him. There were loud noises as if someone was slamming down on buttons, and then a maddened sigh. "It's been used." Said the man with the whiny voice. "You're kidding me… So there's some sort of computer generated thing walking around now?" said a different man. His voice was leveled, calm, but a hint of growling anger deep down. "No, not a _thing_. A human who perfectly mimics someone from a game." Said the man hitting the buttons continually.

Ezio scoffed, and then quickly covered his mouth. Clara smacked his arm gently and he shrugged regretfully. "Who's there?" said the man with the level voice, and Clara started to feel fear clutch tightly at her heart. "Fuck!" she whispered inaudibly, starting to inch closer to the edge as the footsteps started come around the opposite side. "Ezio, let's go!" she whispered, grabbing his hand. He pulled her back, and she tugged against his firm grip. He reached down and warily pulled up a stray piece of the burned wires, then silently tossed it to the end of the room. It landed noisily on a desk with papers and other utensils piled high amongst it, but were then brought crashing to the ground by the thick wire. The three men came running from behind the computer and towards the desk, completely oblivious to their presence. Clara felt her heart drop into their stomach at the enormous size of them all. Tall, muscle and yelling in anger. "Now!" Ezio hissed, pulling her hand and running from around the computer. When they stepped around the wires, her foot slipped against the slick ground. She hastily scrambled to her feet, but it was enough time for one of the men to turn and see them, then rush after them. "Stop!" the man with the booming voice yelled, and Clara struggled to catch up with Ezio.

A brawny hand grabbed the hood of her jacket and yanked her back into the hard chest of the man, his arm wrapping around her neck securely. "Ezio!" she cried, clawing and thrashing against his clutch. Ezio turned quickly and felt rage boil in his blood. The man reached behind him and pulled a long, thick knife from his belt loop and held it up at Ezio. Clara clawed harder and kicked backwards, trying anything to avoid the sleek knife in his hand. Ezio didn't think twice of rapidly sprinting towards her and snapping his wrist back to reveal his hidden blade, then streaming it through the air effortlessly towards them. The hood of Ezio's jacket flew back, uncovering his angered face as he jumped into the air. He threw his arm back and then thrust it forward; the shine glaring off of the blade briefly blinded Clara. Everything moved so quickly in the next few moments, that what she guessed had happened was instead of killing the man that was holding her, Ezio merely sliced his arm open, causing him to let her go.

Another strong arm grabbed her around her waist and spun her backwards into Ezio's side as the blade sliced down the man's forearm, forcing a harsh yell from him. Clara yelled as the tip of the man's knife grazed Ezio's cheek, but he was quick to pull his arm up and knock the knife from his hands before he could slice at them again. Ezio unwound his arm from around Clara and pushed her towards the front of the building. "Go!" he yelled, grabbing onto her hand and both of them sprinting towards the doors. "Get back here!" one of the other men yelled, and as Ezio shoved the door open with his shoulder they could both hear footsteps running after them. Ezio and Clara dashed around the building and into the winding maze of the others, trying to escape the angered men and see there way through the darkness. Clara easily kept pace with Ezio as they ran and jumped around corners, but she was clumsy and nearly slipped against the mud many times. After what seemed like continual miles of running around buildings and nearly running into the path of the men, Ezio led her to an open field that ran down the length of the bay. They both stopped abruptly, feeling defenseless and naked in the open area. They both spun in circles, trying to find somewhere to hide. Ezio's eyes landed on the water, and he swallowed a groan and pulled her towards it.

They ran to edge of the dock, and she stopped before he pulled her in. "I can't! My bag has all my stuff in it!" she said, and it wasn't just because she loved her bag. She needed her phone and money to get them out of there when everything calmed down. He grabbed her bag roughly and stuffed it under the planks of the dock, and then pulled her back near the edge. She plugged her nose as they dove into the freezing water, the cold instantaneously shocking her. She broke the surface gasping for air, desperately trying to stay afloat, because of all things Clara could do, swimming was not one of them. Panic started to over take her as her limbs froze in the water and sink back under the surface, but a muscular arm looped around her waist and pulled her up and back. Ezio easily dragged her through the water and placed her back against one of the beams, then wrapping his arms around her to hold her up. She shook madly in the glacial water, her teeth clattering loudly and quick breath heaving from her mouth. Even with Ezio's arms wrapped around her definitely she still fought to stay afloat and try not kicking or hitting him, let alone splatter violently at the water.

"Stay calm, Clara." He said softly, grabbing her arm and looping it around the back of his neck. She fervently wrapped her other arm around him, pulling his warm body against hers. She didn't know how close they were actually going to be until his waist rested between her thighs, their chests pressed flush against each other. His strong legs kicked effortlessly against the water to keep them buoyant, his hands gripping tighter at the beam she was pressed against. She haphazardly placed her feet flat against the beam to keep them from wrapping around his hips, but that only spread her legs farther and made him press tighter against her. 'Aw shit.' She thought dimly, averting her eyes down to the rippling water around them. "Clara, look at me. You need to be quieter or they'll find us." He said in a murmur, and she nodded, her teeth still clattering. "Breathe," he said, taking a deep breath in. She followed suit, and let it out as he did. Although the water's stabbing cold didn't seize to make her shiver uncontrollably, she was ultimately able to calm her breathing and stop her clattering teeth in time for the men to run down the dock loudly and stop at the end that they were beneath.

"Good going dipshit, they got away!" the man with the whining voice said. "Shut up! That guy had a fucking blade on him!" she man with the deep voice said.

"Damn right I did." Ezio said under his breath, and Clara smiled. "That wasn't just any guy, John. That was one of the men from the game on the system." The man with the leveled voice was speaking now. "And he had a girl with him. She was probably the one who opened up the warehouse." He said, and Clara looked at Ezio with alarm in her eyes. "Jesus, I _told _you we should've installed some sort of security camera in there." One of the men complained. They started to yell back and forth about something, but Clara's attention was no longer on the men. It was on the large yacht gliding past them and making quite sizable waves in its wake. She began to panic and try to progress away, but Ezio held her at a halt. "Clara, its okay, stop moving!" he hissed, but she wasn't listening as a wave that would easily roll over their heads approached. "Clara, stop!" he hissed again, holding tighter to her and pressing against her more. 'Ezio-!" she tried to say, but as the wave was about to cover them, he shoved his head forward and locked lips with her, doing anything to keep her quiet.

Her eyes pinched shut and her arms wrapped tighter around his neck just as the water rushed over them, engulfing them entirely. The water evened out and their heads popped back over the surface, but Ezio wasn't quick to pull his lips from hers. They parted leisurely, her arms still tight around his neck. He opened his eyes and looked at her sopping face, the droplets falling from her hair and continuing down her cheeks. She was no longer shaking or breathing heavily, but there was a very evident and warm flush moving across her face. Her eyes finally opened and she looked at him. Both of them were unable to part gazes for the greatest moment in time, simply holding each other tightly and trying to sort through the rush they were both experiencing. A spark was flying between them in that short second they had shared; even if they weren't certain if they were feeling the same about each other. "Um-", she started to say, but he shushed her promptly with his finger, and the pointed up at the dock above them. She had completely forgotten there were men after them. She bit down on her bottom lip and lowered her head a little.

"I saw them jump in here." Said one of the men. "Well they must've swum to one of the boats. No way in hell they can stay in that water for too long." Another said, and Clara rolled her eyes. They had no idea how hard it really was. "Let's go search around for them then, but keep your tempter under control this time damn it!" snarled one of the men, and they all walked from dock and towards the other side of the boat docks. Ezio waited a few moments before turning Clara around so she could grip to the beam herself, and then swam to the edge to hoist himself up to look over the floorboards. Clara gasped at the sudden flush of cold she felt when his warm body left hers, and gripped tighter at the beam, closing her eyes to try and calm her irregular breathing. When she thought about his soft lips pressed against hers, it unexpectedly calmed her more then it did to make her giggly and a bundle of nerves. Her mind raced with the image over and over again until her breathing was level, and the cold was tolerable.

Ezio carefully lifted himself from the water so only his eyes were peaking over the edge, and watched the men walk down the edge of the rocks against the bay until they were out of sight. He lowered himself back down into the water and paddled over to Clara, but stopped when he found her clinging to beam with a silly smirk on her face. He at once had a very good proposal of what she was thinking about to make her smile like that, but he wouldn't bring it up to mortify her. Instead he calmly swam over to her and touched her arm softly, jarring her from her blissful thoughts. Her eyes sprang open and her smile faded. "We need to go now." He said, and she nodded, pushing herself from the beam. She raised one of her arms to pull herself along the piping under the boards, but when Ezio coiled his arm around her waist and pulled her without difficulty along with him, she happily grabbed onto his shoulders and kicked with him. "Pull your self up," he said. She reached up and grabbed the edge of the dock and used all of her near non existent upper body strength to do so. Ezio's hands grabbed at her hips to push her up, and she blushed, quickly scrambling to throw her leg over and pull herself up the rest of the way.

"Come on." she said, spinning to reach her hand down to him. He grabbed it and she helped pull him up, his clothes hanging heavily around him. Both of them sat facing each other, completely saturated and creating large puddles of water around them. Clara again began to shiver as the cold breeze washed over them, but tried to mask it. "W-we need to get h-home." She forced out, trying to ring her clothes as best as possible. He nodded in agreement, not as affected by the cold as she was. "Uh, where's my bag?' she asked, turning to crawl over to the edge and look over. He moved next to her and bowed his arm under the boards, then pulled her bag out and handed it to her. "T-thanks." She whispered, cacophonously rummaging through her purse and pulled her phone out. "Come on, let's get away from the wind." He said standing and pulling her up too. She walked ahead of him and headed to the bathrooms, stopping under the heat lamp that hung under the entrances. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, trying to discontinue her trembling hands. Eventually she was able to punch in the numbers to Steven's cell phone, and she put the phone on speaker.

She thought he wasn't going to answer, but eventually the other line picked up and she was greeted by Steven's typical monotone voice. She nearly had to beg him to pick her up again, seeing as his video games were so much more important, but when he caught essence of her panicked and shaking voice, he unenthusiastically agreed to pick the two up. She hung her phone up and stuffed it in her bag, then threw her arms around herself. "Fuck I'm so cold." She nearly sobbed, her face contorting into pain. Her bones rattled and her skin felt raw. Ezio unzipped his jacket and pulled the two ends apart, and then opened his arms to her. She eyed him warily.

"Come." He said, stepping towards her. Before she moved to encircle him, her eyes caught sight of the tight, soaked shirt that outlined his chiseled and muscled chest flawlessly. She held back a weak whine as she hugged him tightly, his arms holding her firmly against his chest. He was like a space heater, literally giving off waves of warmth that sunk into her chilly skin. The two of them stood under the dull heat of the lamp dripping water and creating another puddle, brooding over everything that just flew past them. It seemed that everything was spiraling downhill quickly and completely out of Clara's control, and she couldn't refute that this was wholly her responsibility. Her eyes closed as she snuggled her face into his chest more, and he grinned. When she took a deep breath in, she marveled at his fragrance. Like iron and something sweet; unable to put her finger on the exact scent. "Hey Ezio?" she said softly, suddenly recalling their earlier discussion. "Hm?" he rumbled, and she sighed, closing her eyes against the soothing vibrations. "You can stay with me." She said evenly, and he smiled, resting his cheek against her head.


	8. Ch 6: Immersed

**Before I start the next chapter, I would like to say something. If you do not like the premise of my story or my writing in general, that's fine; do not bother leaving me a review on how 'crappy' you think it will be or what you dislike about it. I do not give a flying fuck what you think. Unless you have constructive criticism, which I gladly accept, then please stop wasting my time and further proving that you are nothing more than a mass of flesh and bone without a working brain.3**

**MSI-Lights Out**

**Phantogram-When I'm Small**

**Disclaimer: Assassins Creed and all of its characters belong to Ubisoft and I make to claims of ownership of them.**

Steven's hands gripped severely around the steering wheel as he pulled up against the curb of the bathrooms, glaring at Clara and Ezio as they jogged over to him. From the start he had a great disliking to Ezio, and not only because he almost got Clara hit by a car. He'd played the game plenty of times to know how he acted around woman, and he didn't want something appalling happening to Clara yet again. Together they laughed as they darted through the rain and to the car, slipping and scrambling to crawl into the car. Clara pushed Ezio in and then climbed in after him, flipping her hair back and looking over Steven's shoulder. "I'm sorry." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder and then resting her chin upon it. He gave her a sidelong glimpse, and the grudgingly reached back to tug on one of the ends of her dripping hair. She giggled and leaned back next to Ezio, helping him fumble out of the jacket. Steven watched sullenly from the rear view mirror as she tugged the soaking jacket from his body, revealing the assassins built form. They talked silently but Steven was unable to hear over the loud noises from outside the car. What ever it was, it had both of them smiling and making strange faces at each other. Clara would quickly avert her eyes to not ogle him, but she found herself stealing peaks as she removed her own jacket carefully. He too would steal small glances at her; it made Steven's skin crawl. Ezio carefully unwound the scarf from her neck, and that's when Steven caught sight the bloody bandages. His foot slammed the brake pedal to the floorboard and the two went flying forward. "Holy crap what happened?" she asked alarmed, leaning forward.

Steven spun in his seat and glared at her. "What the fuck did he do to your neck?" he bellowed, and she quickly placed her hands over the loose bandages. "Steven, hold on." She said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. He smacked her hand away and directed his rage at Ezio. "What the hell did you do to her?" He yelled, shoving his door open and nearly running around to the other side. Ezio's door flew open and Steven's hands reached inside, grabbing him by the lapels and pulling him out. "Steven!" yelled Clara, scrambling from the seat and running around the car. She hadn't realized he had stopped in the middle of the street until cars swerved around the two men swinging fists at each other ruthlessly. People honked and would briefly stop next to them to shout at them, whether it was outrageous curses of encouragement or insults to try and force them out of the street. "Stop!" Clara yelled over the loud traffic and beating rain. As Clara reached for Ezio's arm, he swung it back and his fist made loud, smacking contact with Steven's jaw. It didn't even seem like Steven felt anything, for he too propelled his fist forward and slugged Ezio in the cheek. The punches began to swing faster and gain more momentum as the seconds ticked by, all the time Clara was trying to find someway to pull them apart. Her eyes were stuck on his arm with the blade, fearful that he would decide to snap his wrist back and stab Steven at any moment.

Shoving her arms between them in a moments notice, she tried to pry her elbows between them, but that was like trying to move two iron tanks apart. Steven's hand pushed at her chest to try and push her back, but instead ended up punching her and sending her falling back, skidding against the slick street. The skin of her elbows scrapped down and she groaned in pain, only adding to her injuries. "Non toccarla!" Ezio bellowed, throwing another hit at Steven. Steven ducked under his flying fist and charged at his abdomen, both of them falling back farther into the street. Clara scrambled and slipped until she was on her feet again, and her eyes darted to a woman in her car dialing for the police. "Shit!" she hissed; running back to Steven's car and quickly unclasping her bags shoulder strap and wrapping it around her fist, and then running back over to the two.

Ezio sat over Steven's chest, throwing punch after punch into his angered face. When he brought his fist back again, Clara tried to grab for his arm, but instead his fist knocked her in the mouth. She growled angrily and grabbed at his arm, fastening her hands around his wrist that time. He struggled to pull from her, but she was able to drag him a few feet back and then run between them. As Steven stood, she held her breath and brought her hand holding with the bag strap wrapped around it back, and then swung it forward. Her fist slammed into his cheek and he fell to his side, dumbfounded and staring at her angrily. She turned and flung it against Ezio's face too, making sure the both of them stayed on the ground. "Will you two just stop- FUCKING FIGHTING!" she bellowed, patience completely leaving her body. The two men stopped moving and stared up at her with wide eyes and ringing hearing from their battered and aching heads. "I swear if I have to pull you two apart one more time I'll kick both of your asses!" she yelled, stomping over to the car and opening the front door. "Now get in the fucking car; I'm driving!" she concluded, nodding her head impatiently in its direction. "But-", Steven began to say as he stood. "I said NOW!" she screamed again, and he bit his busted lip and walked over to the car, eyeballing her before he slid in. She slammed the door behind him and then opened the back one, glaring at Ezio and beginning to open her mouth to scream at him too. "I know what to do." He said quietly, wiping his bloodied nose on his forearm. She then slammed the door behind him also, and before turning to walk around the car, the few cheering men who hung out their windows caught her attention.

They pumped their fists and nearly barked at her, but she simply shook her head and walked around to the drivers' side and climbed in, this time closing the door gently behind her. Inside she sat for a fraction of a second and placed her hands gently on her lap, then shifted the car into Drive and easily merged back into the lane. A butter knife could've easily cut the tension that filled the car. Clara kept her eyes glued on the street and held her hand over her mouth, trying to wipe the blood that came from her split lip. It stung against her tongue every time she licked at the cut; it made her eyes water. Ezio watched her expertly steer the massive device they were in; he recalled her calling it a 'car'. Even with one hand she easily swerved in and out of lanes, taking corners smoothly, but when she accelerated he could hear the anger in the loud _vrooming _noise of the engine. He heatedly looked out his window, his mood growing sourer with every minute that passed that he had to sit near Steven. Inside, his heart was aching to just return to his home in Florence, but it obvious that that was never going to happen again. The car ride seemed to drag on for ages as she found her way about the city he didn't know until they pulled into the driveway of a house, and she and Steven climbed from the car. She walked around the back of the car to avoid Steven and opened Ezio's door agitatedly, waving her hand towards her. He exited the car and stood close to her, not wanting to be anywhere in close proximity to Steven. When she saw his own split lips she reacted instantaneously, raising her hand to lightly hover over his cut. His shrug was almost imperceptible but she saw it and lowered her hand, turning to Steven. "Clara-", Steven said in a sigh, walking around the back of the car to her. She straightened up and tensed as Ezio's hand pressed flat on her back, prepared to pull her out of the way.

Steven glared at Ezio, and then looked down at her. His eye socket was swollen and he had a fat lip, but it still didn't damper his naturally irritated looking face. "Look, I'm sorry. But he obviously did something to your neck." He said loudly, taking a protective step towards her. Ezio fidgeted closer to her, and she closed her eyes in irritation. It was getting to the point where it made her want to cry. Her arms slowly lifted until they were both pushed back at arms length, and then she looked back to Steven. "I know, okay? But it was my doing." She said, and stopped him before he could speak. "It's over now and done with, and he's not going to do it ever again." She said as she craned her neck to look at Ezio. "Are you?" she asked him, and he shook his head. She turned back to Steven and he was staring at the bandages on her neck. "I don't care if it's done and over with, I told him-", she cut him off abruptly with a shove. "You shouldn't talk; I'm going to have a bruise on my chest because you pushed me so hard. Both of you have battered me like a freaking piñata in the past two days and I'm sick of it." Her voice was raised in a no nonsense tone; his mouth closed. "If you two get into another fight, I'm going to tell Jesy you got drunk off your ass and brawled with some guy…" she paused to watch Steven's face drop in stun and then look at Ezio. "And I'll hide your blade." She added. He lowered his head, but still looked at her mulishly. "We're going home now." She said to Steven as she placed her bag strap over her opposite shoulder and grabbed Ezio's hand to lead him away. Halfway down the drive way she stopped and looked back at Steven. "And by the way, Ezio is staying with us now, so you're going to have to get used to being around him." She said. This time Steven's jaw dropped and she turned away, walking down the sidewalk from his house.

* * *

><p>Clara's hand was cold and hard in Ezio's; he was unable to pull his attention from her edgy walking. She nearly stomped down the wet street, her eyes trained in front of her and not gazing anywhere else. Many times he opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it, quickly dismissing his words. In Clara's mind she was fighting to calm her flaring anger, but she found it hard when she would feel the cold wind brush against her irritated scraps or cuts and feel a dull throb start to grow at her chest where Steven had pushed her. She blinked erratically to try and mask the shine of tears that lined her tired eyes.<p>

* * *

><p>By the time they were only a few streets down from finally arriving at Clara's home, neither of them had said a word. His legs ached and his skin felt cold and raw from the wet clothes he had been wearing ever since they plunged into the bay, not to mention the foul smell the bay water that had sunken into their clothes and they now carried. Ezio's shoulders slumped as they turned the corner from the busy street and onto her quiet and dark one. He hated those car things. They were loud and exerted a smell that made his nose burn and his head hurt. The soft sound of Clara yawning startled him and he looked to her. A small tear dotted at the edge of her eye when her eyes opened, and she looked at him suspiciously. "I'm tired." She mumbled, and he was glad to finally hear her speak. She no longer sounded angry, just a little peeved. "Non mi sorprende." He said softly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. She sighed and looked at him. "English please; I'm too tired to even guess what you said-."<p>

Clara quickly fell from Ezio's range of vision when she tripped over an upturned cement slab of the sidewalk. Her knees and hands scrapped loudly against the rough ground and she whimpered as she shoved herself onto her bottom. Her face twisted into complete agony as she looked at her raw palms and torn jeans with open scraps peeking through them. Her hands hovered over her now stinging and bleeding knees, and she hunched forward, fighting back a scream she so desperately wanted to unleash. Ezio crouched down next to her, and as he moved towards her to help her back up, she pushed him away, making him fall back on his bottom. "What was that for?" he asked, looking at her crossly. "Because I didn't want to be the only one with these many freaking cuts!" she cried, wiping warm tears from her eyes. His frustration quickly dissolved and he got back to his feet. His hands carefully wrapped around her wrists and he pulled her back up, laughing when her head hung back and she let herself become dead weight. "No, I'm just going to sit here so I don't obtain anymore injuries!" she hollered, leaning backwards from him. He chuckled again and looped one of her arms over his head so her chest was against his back and he was hoisting her up. He jumped up a little so she scooted farther up his back, and even as she continued to groan in anger she wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands curled under her thighs. She sighed once more and let her cheek rest against his head, trying to control her rapid heart beat and the warm flush creeping up her cheeks. Her blood raced in excitement despite her angry exterior at the feel of him pressed to firmly against her again.

Ezio walked easily down the dark street, his mastered steps stepping easily over any other type of obstacles that would've brought her down again and possibly thrown her into a full out fit. Clara sniffled silently and rubbed her eyes dry, feeling childish for her sudden outburst. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. He grinned. "No need to be." He said coolly back to her, bonking his head gently against hers. "I usually don't act like this, but with all the fighting and falling, and the stupid rain…" she trailed off as he started to chuckle softly. "Don't worry about it cara. And please, no more crying. You're far too pretty for tears." He said evenly. She bit her bottom lip to stop the wide, toothy smile that eventually spread from ear to ear. She turned her head the other way in fear he might see her, but it was too late. He could feel it in the way her body tensed and hugged tighter to his that she was reacting to his kind words. And he meant every one of them too; he really did think she was way too pretty to be crying, and unfortunately covered in so many cuts and scrapes. Especially since it was his fault that she had a few of them. "Clara, I'm sorry too." He said, and she looked back to him, her eyebrow rising in curiosity. "I hurt you." He said sadly, his eyes dropping to the ground. She sighed and rested her chin on her arm, and then patted his chest.

"No more hurting each other. Deal?" she asked, and he nodded with a smirk.

"Deal." He replied. "Unless you and Steven get into another fight; then I won't hesitate to kick both of you in the jugular." She added quickly; he laughed out loud, his body shaking under hers. She smiled and looked back ahead of them, letting out a happy moan when her house was in sight. "Oh shower, here I come." She chanted, swinging her legs forward once. "Would you like to walk now?" he asked, and she clung tighter to him. "No, I'm good." She said, evilly taking advantage of her momentary transportation. He jumped so she scooted farther up his back, and she yelped in surprise. His eyes went back ahead of them to her house, but noticed something that wasn't there before. "Who's… car?" he questioned quickly. She squinted her eyes to see through the darkness, and she felt the life drain from her face. "Oh shit. What am I going to tell my dad?" she asked herself, wiggling from his hold and landing on her feet. "Oh shit- Oh shit- Oh shit," she repeated, covering her face with her hands and walking around him in haphazard circles. Ezio struggled to turn when she did, but she moved so quickly for her small size. "I got it!' she suddenly announced, standing straight as a rail and stopping in her tracks.

"You're an exchanged student whose passport was lost so that's why you're staying longer then expected." She explained, turning to him and pointing a finger at him. "Passport?" he repeated, his face knotting into unknowing. "It's like a little booklet thing that let's you travel around the world. Just remember; if he asks you why you're staying for so long, all you say is 'My passport was lost so I'm waiting for a new one to be mailed.'" She said, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him gently. Of course, as she said this a very loud chopper raced down the street, momentarily drowning her out and making him hear something entirely and horribly different. His eyebrows shot up in surprise at what he had thought he heard from her, but nonetheless he repeated the words in his head to make sure he would not forget. "Did you hear me?" she asked, and he nodded with a confident smile. "Okay. Don't worry, he's really nice and chill." She explained, hooking her arm around his and pulling him towards her house. "What if he asks where I'm from?" he asked her urgently, trying to pull back on her insistent pulling. "Honestly… just tell him the truth. Except that you're from a game. Just say you're from Italy and all that stuff." She said, pulling him back towards the house. He swallowed hard and walked briskly next to her until they approached the porch where she stopped at the bottom steps.

She quickly tore the bandages from around her neck and stuffed them in her pocket, then wrapped her wet scarf around her neck to hide the cuts. "Just let me do the talking until he directly talks to you, okay?" she whispered calmly, and Ezio nodded anxiously. She smiled reassuringly at him and led him up the steps, and opened the front door. Ezio felt his mouth water when the smell of cooked meat and pasta filled his senses. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, and she tugged him through the door and closed it behind them. "Clara, I need your help with something- Oh, hello." Her dad walked around from the kitchen corner and stopped mid-stride when he saw his daughter standing next to a tall man, who really didn't look to be seventeen at all. "Dad, this is Ezio. He's a foreign exchange student." She said easily, as if he were meeting a new friend instead of someone from half across the world. "Foreign exchange student? I don't remember you running this by me." He said, walking over to them. Her father stared suspiciously at him.

"Yea I did. You were on your Ambian though, so you don't remember." She said with a sarcastic smile.

"I think I would've remembered you telling me about someone coming to live at our house." He replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's what you said when I told you to not leave the back door open when we had Sarah, and then the next day I found pieces of her splayed across the road." She retorted. Her dad dropped his gaze for a moment. "Point taken." He said under his breath.

"Well, he's here now; my name is Jerry. Very nice to meet you; what was your name?" he asked kindly reaching his hand out towards Ezio. "Ezio; Ezio Auditore." He said evenly, shaking his hand firmly.

"What area are you coming from?" Jerry asked; his once angered face was now calming into pure curiosity. "Italy." Ezio replied shortly, and then added, "Florence, Italy."

"Very nice. So how long will you be staying with us Ezio?" he asked.

"Well my whore was lost so I'm waiting for a new one to be nailed." He said eagerly, finally relaxing when he didn't have to repeat the words in his head anymore. Jerry's face dropped as he analyzed his words, and Clara turned her head slowly towards him, now realizing why he gave her such a finny look when she tried to tell him what to say outside. Quick footsteps could be heard approaching from the living room and Dylan's (Clara's brother) head popped from around the corner. "Who said what about a whore-." He said, but eyes widened when he saw Ezio standing in his house. Clara felt anxiety shoot up her body; she had forgotten that Dylan knew _exactly _what Ezio looked like and who he was. "E-excuse me?" Jerry stuttered, leaning towards him in hope he had heard him wrong. "He said he lost his _passport _so he's waiting for a new one to be _mailed_." She corrected him, wanting nothing more then to beat his skull into the ground. "His English isn't perfect so his words become all slurred and it sounds like he's sayin' the craziest of shit." She said, patting his arm innocently. Ezio cocked his head to the side in irritation, knowing he had just mortified himself. He nervously ran his fingers through his short brown locks, trying anything to calm his shaking hands.

"Oh good; I'm glad I didn't really hear what I thought I heard then. Anyways, so, Ezio… Where is your luggage?" Jerry leaned from side to side in search of what he expected to be many bags. "The airport sent his luggage to the wrong state, so he's only got what he's wearing." Clara answered quickly, her lips in a straight line.

"Well that's bullshit." Jerry retorted, his head raising a little and pushing his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. "Any idea on how long it'll take to get them here?" he asked, leaning against the side of the kitchen corner. Clara and Ezio both shrugged. "Well, we can't have you walking around in those wets- Why are you both sopping wet?" he asked, realizing that they were creating small drops around them. "We had to take the bus home from the airport and it's been raining all day." Clara answered, ringing her hair over the flood. "Hey, hey! Don't do that!" her dad hollered, throwing a hand towel at her. She smirked and headed towards the stairs, tugging on Ezio's arm. "Can he borrow some pajamas until I can get him some clothes tomorrow?" she called from half way up the stairs. "No, I'm going to make him stay in those clothes the entire time he's here!" her dad called back sarcastically, ambling back into the kitchen. Clara looked back at her brother who was staring at Ezio in shock. She placed her finger over her lips and gave him a deadly glare. She would have to explain everything again to him later if she wanted Ezio to stay.

* * *

><p>The hot water slithered down Clara's battered body, sending satisfying chills down her skin. After a day filled with cold water and injuries, the hot water and steam felt like unbelievable, even if it stung the multiple cuts and scrapes she had sustained. She pushed her wavy locks from her face and felt the water twist down her scalp. She mumbled sweet nothings to herself as she stood in a daze, never wanting to move from that spot. But of course, that couldn't happen anymore. And all at once, she suddenly became painfully aware of the overall picture of this. Ezio was to live with her for God knows how long, and knowing that he is completely new and oblivious to everything in this new world there was no way guessing if he would ever be able to live on his own. Her eyes closed as she craned her neck back to let the scolding water run down her face. Even under the heated water she could feel a blush creep up her chest and to her face; the thought of Ezio living with her made her lower stomach twist with excitement, but also unknowing dread.<p>

* * *

><p>She unwrapped her hair from the damp towel and knocked softly at her door. "Ezio?" she asked, slowly opening the door and peaking in. Before she had left the room to shower she had set Ezio down in front of her TV with a borrowed pair of pajamas in his lap. She had expected him to be changed already, but instead he was sitting even closer to the glowing TV, his eyes wide with mystery and his mouth open in a bewildered O. She chuckled and silently moved around him, placing her dirty clothes where they belonged and going about her girly routines. As she brushed her hair out she peaked around her closet door to eye what he was so transfixed on. Chrono Crusade was playing on its usual late night time on Syfy. 'Uh-oh. Maybe not the best selection for his first time watching TV.' She thought, but then shrugged it off. He looked utterly intrigued by it, and as long as he wasn't slicing anything in her room or scaling walls, she could be happy with it too.<p>

Ezio stayed seated for the remainder of the time she spent tidying up her chaotic room (despite the large and open size of it) and artfully covering up the corner she dubbed 'Shrine of Ezio' so he would no longer feel like he was being stalked. An hour and a half later, she had finished folding her clean laundry that had piled up in one of her corners and made them both dinner, but now there was the task of pulling him away from the TV. She crouched down next to him and tapped his shoulder gently. When there was no response, she lightly pushed him, but he simply pushed her hand away. "Ezi~o?" she said his name in a giggle, but still, his eyes didn't pull away from the screen. She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes, but he was like a cat. He either ducked under her hands or looked over them. Her face dropped in her hand and she stood, walking from the room and down the stairs. She strolled into the kitchen and started to retrieve their dinner plates. "He doesn't want to come down?" her dad asked from behind a mouthful of food. "He's glued to the TV. He has no cable back home." She said easily, mentally patting herself on the back for such a quick explanation. "Hm. Poor kid. How does he usually entertain himself?" he asked, and she felt her body freeze in her actions.

"He-," she started to say. "Maybe he runs across rooftops and _assassinates _people." Dylan cut in sharply, giving her a very weasel like stare. She calmly turned from him and back to her dad. "He says that he usually just sits around or wanders around his town." She finished evenly. "Well at least he's not like you two and do nothing but sit around all day." He said under his breath, giving her a very cheesy smile. "Don't tell me that, tell that to _him_." She said, nodding her head towards Dylan as she walked carefully to the stairs with their food and drinks. "_He's _the one who needs to loose the weight." She called from halfway up the stairs. "Clara!" her dad exclaimed, but she was already down the hall and pushing her door open with her back, then shutting it with her foot, keeping her eyes on the plates balanced on her arms the whole time. "Okay, I know you love the TV but you have to…" she finally raised her head to look at him, but instead of sitting in front of the TV, he was now standing. The slight brewing she felt in her stomach from just the thought of living with Ezio was nothing compared to the overwhelming heat she felt radiate up her whole body. The nearly crushing sight of his hard and formed muscles gliding under his tanned, smooth looking skin of his stomach and chest as he flexed his arms up to pull the shirt over his head made her weak in the knees. Even as he spied her from the corner of his eye and lowered his arms to look at her with an arched eyebrow and puckered lip she didn't look away.

"Clara?" he finally said, but her eyes were still fixed on his bare chest. 'I think I just came…' Was all she could think as he moved towards her with careful steps. It looked as if she had just seen a something unbearably boring, but he didn't know that that was Clara's O face, completely unlike his or anyone else's. "Clara?" he asked again. She blinked many times, and then realizing that she had been staring at him, she pinched her eyes shut. "Holy crap I'm sorry!" she said, lowering her head and feeling embarrassment swirl in her gut. "I won't look again- Err, I mean I won't look at all." She fumbled over her words, wanting to turn and walk out the door but the plates held against her arms prevented her from moving much at all. "It's okay Clara." He said confidently, moving towards her again. When she heard his feet amble towards her, she squeezed her eye lids tighter together. "Please, just finish getting dressed! I don't want to see anymore!" she nearly screamed, and he stopped mid-stride. "Do you think I'm repulsive?" he asked with a hurt tone, taking a step back.

She let out a small scoff at the realization of why he had suddenly gone so quiet. Her head turned back up and she rested her head against the door, opening her eyes to look at him. Her cheeks flushed as she struggled to not look at his bare chest. She wanted nothing more then to just let her eyes drag over his stomach and down the distinct V mark of his hips until his pants devastatingly covered everything else. "Trust me; you're not repulsive in the slightest." She said, and his mood peeked with a grin. She closed her eyes again as he grinned at her. "I'm just being respectful." She tried to say evenly. He nodded and returned to undressing, pushing his pants down and kicking them to the side. When Clara herd them drop she wished that she had never walked in, because a wide toothy smile was peaking from behind her lips. She tried to keep the giggly though of Ezio's naked ass from her mind but she found it harder to restrain the giggles that started to form in her throat. Ezio turned to her as he pulled the pajama pants up and turned to her, eying her suspiciously. "What's so funny?" he asked, walking back over to her and taking a plate from her arm. She looked at him and shook her head guiltily and then bashfully walked past him to sit at the end of her bed, her plate of food placed in her lap.

* * *

><p>"That makes no sense." Ezio finally said. Clara dropped her face into her hands, an angry sigh expelling from her. After explaining what a TV was and how it worked he seemed to accept it and grasp the concept quickly, but now they had come to the ridiculous and almost girly, teen like argument of the equally ridiculous plot of a TV show that to him made utterly no sense. "She can't help but fall for him! He's charming, <em>and <em>he's a vampire!" she hollered, shaking her hands and staring at him madly. "It doesn't matter if he's- what ever you just said! She shouldn't fall for a stronzo like that!" he hollered back, shaking his head to emphasis his words. "Oh you shouldn't talk, ya big fancy assassin! You make girls fall for you all the time!" she retorted, getting onto her knees so she was taller then him. "That's a completely different subject." He replied coolly, averting his gaze.

"Oh no it isn't! This argument is about girls' falling for guys to easily, but its men like YOU who make that impossible!" she said, turning him back to look at her. He opened his mouth to reply with something sly, but then it closed and he eyed her with a grin. "What do you mean men like me?" he asked as he leaned back on his hands. Her face twitched in stun and she looked away, plopping back down on her bottom. "Nothing." She replied shortly, keeping her eyes trained on her windows. The rain still beat hard outside, making the windows rattle softly against the strong wind. "Clara?" he asked, moving forward to peer around her shoulders. "Mm-mm." she hummed, sarcastically turning her head farther from him. She did not want him to see the warm flush on her cheeks, because she was one of those girls who fell for assassins with strong voices and rippling muscles, and pretty eyes and maybe a little more below the belt. They both went quiet, simply staring in opposite directions of each other.

His hand delicately grabbed her jaw and turned her to look at him, a gasp tumbling from her lips. His face was mere inches from hers'; she could feel his warm breath beat against her lips, and the sudden urge to push forward and kiss him started to wind its way up her body. His soft brown eyes had her in a trance as he simply stared at her, his body unmoving but calling to her silently. Her hand rose unhurriedly to lay over his as his fingers traced their way farther back her cheek to her neck, resting carelessly there. She could feel the tip of the blade run ever so lightly across her jaw line, making her eyes close and a shiver fire down her body. She took a quiet inhale of breath and her lips parted, but were then quickly enclosed by Ezio's. An involuntary moan rumbled from her chest and her hands hastily shot to his head to entangle her finger in his brown locks to pull him even closer. His hand moved from her cheek and possessively grabbed her by the waist to pull her against him. He spun slowly from where he sat so she could throw her leg over his thighs to sit at ease in his lap, and now able to wrap his arms completely around her. His lips moved fiercely against hers, his tongue darting into her mouth to claim dominance. Another moan escaped her lips as his hands slid up her back roughly, bringing her shirt along with them. Her hips ground against his and he responded by pulling her tighter against him, a feral growl leaving his lips. He carefully pulled her head back so his hot lips could trail wet kisses down her throat, all the while her hands were dragging down his chest to the bottom of his shirt. One of his hands left her hair and slid down her front almost clumsily to cup her breast, and she arched into his touch as he squeezed her gently. Her mind swam with everything that was Ezio in that moment; his hands touching her everywhere, his hips bucking up to meet her grinds and his teeth nibbling at her collarbone sensually, all of it making her gasp and moan under his control.

"Clara!" Ezio yelled, shaking her shoulder. She quickly spun around to face him, her mind snapping from its steamy thoughts to focus back on reality. Ezio stared at her with a bewildered look in his eyes, mostly because of the soft humming noises she had been making when she wasn't turned to him. Her face reddened only a few shades lighter then a tomato and she shot to her feet, mortified that she had been fantasizing and nearly loosing herself to the thought of Ezio touching her, when he was only a foot away from her. "I don't feel so good." She blabbered, hastily walking to the door and walking out, and then bolting to the bathroom. She fumbled with the lock to the door and then walked backwards until she sat at the edge of her tub, dropping her face into her hands. A steady pulse beat between her legs where she could've sworn she felt Ezio grinding against her, but her thoughts have gotten the best of her before. The scary thing was, was that she didn't know if she had been moving at all, or just humming. "Oh dear God!" she exclaimed, letting herself fall backwards into the tub with a loud, and painful _thump. _"Ouch." She mumbled, closing her eyes.

Ezio still sat at the foot of her bed, unable to fully process what had just happened. One minute he was trying to get her attention and the next her was completely immersed by the noises she made and the way her body rolled against nothing. The whole time he had been fighting the urge to spin her around and spread her out along the floor, the clear thought of barely even knowing her not even a splinter of concern in his racing mind. He leaned back against the bed and ran his finger through his hair, and then looked down to his pants. "Damn." He mumbled, noticing the tent that he had unintentionally pitched. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, thinking of disturbing images to try and calm his rapid pulse. But Clara's soft humming noises still filled his ears, just like the fluid thrum of a guitar being played. 'Music to my ears.' He thought, a sly smile curling his lips up. 'I'm going to Hell.' He also added, but it didn't worry him much. As long as he had to gentle vision of Clara curling against herself like that, he would be happy to be stuffed into any corner of the world, or underworld.


	9. Skin

**EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! Lot's goin' on around here. :3 So while I fight to finish the next chapter I thought I would just put another filler in!**

_Idiota! Quello che stai facendo? - Idiot! What are you doing?_

_Amore - Love_

* * *

><p>Ezio looked at her annoyingly. A whole forty-five minutes had gone by of him talking and she hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to him. His hand which was locked in hers suddenly loosened, and she blinked, looking at him. "What?" she asked coolly, as if she had simply misheard something. He stopped in his tracks and moved his hand from hers, crossing his arms stubbornly. Her eyebrow arched up and she puckered her lips. "You were talking… Weren't you?" she asked lowly, twiddling her thumbs. He nodded and tapped his foot, and she averted her eyes. He sighed and stepped close to her, resting his hands on her shoulders and rubbing her skin softly. A thin layer of sweat beaded all over her from the hot sun that beat over the outskirts of Florence they walked through; in a matter of a week or more they would be where Ezio knew the land best, and they would finally be able to stop running. The ashamed expression on her soft face made him chuckle, and he pecked her forehead gently. "What's bothering you <em>amore<em>?" he asked sweetly, angling her head back up just as it dropped. There were many things swirling in her mind at the moment; the past that led them to this current spot, how much she missed her family, her home, but mostly, the heat. "It's so hot." She whined, her shoulders slumping.

He nodded contentedly and again grabbed her hand, leading her forward. "Come, Clara." He said knowingly, dragging her through the sparse trees that lined the city of Florence. A small piece of land that Ezio recalled from his artificial memory; just a few more winding trails and there should be a small cool water spring in the center. Clara angled her face to the sky, closing her eyes and relishing in the feel of a soft breeze that flew downwards from the tops of the trees. Her tang-top began to feel increasingly tight and itchy as the time passed, and even though she wore loose jeans shorts, everything she wore and carried was too much for the hot, muggy weather. "Ezio, where are we going?" she complained, moving her eyes to look at him when he stopped. A low, pleased moan left her fatigued body as the sight of the clear pool of water came into view. A small creak that ran downwards from a mountain top they had been following all day pooled into a fresh water haven, lined with large rocks and soft sand. It looked like a bogus add in a magazine for vacations, but the cool breeze coming from the water made her weak in the knees. "Oh, happy day!" she exclaimed, faltering down the bank and to the edge of the water. Ezio laughed and followed her; unzipping his hoodie which was soaked with sweat in some spots. Clara already had her shorts around her feet and was peeling her tang-top from her skin. She moved forward, ready to launch herself into the water, but then stopped.

Ezio was unbuttoning his jeans as he stopped to look at her. "What's the matter?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "I don't want to get my bra and panties all wet." She whined, looping her thumbs around the hip strap of her panties and pulling them from her skin. "Well if you go in wearing them, I suppose you could wash them." He replied, pushing his jeans and boxers down his legs. Clara gasped and hurriedly averted his eyes. A strong blush crept up her cheeks and she unintentionally moved her arms over her chest. "Clara?" Ezio asked, moving towards her. He didn't fully know the effect of his nakedness to her, so he approached her. Clara jumped when she felt his warm hand rest on her back, and she slyly stepped from him. "Well, let's go for a swim!" she exclaimed, stepping into the water. She dropped her arms to her sides as she wadded through the water, her hands tracing its glassy surface until she was waist deep in the pool. It was cool and refreshing against her burning skin, and she closed her eyes and let her body go limp. Under the surface she smiled; the feeling of it consuming her completely made her realize just how rare these moments were going to be, so she was going to cherish them. But when two muscular hands grabbed her arms roughly and forced her back to the surface, her eyes snapped open and she accidentally gasped inwards. Water shot down her lungs and she hacked and wheezed when her body came from the water.

"Are you alright Clara?" Ezio asked anxiously, pulling her body flush against his. After a few minutes of regaining her composure and forcing the last of the burning water from her body, she glared up at him with teary eyes. "Idiota! Quello che stai facendo?" she yelled, smacking his arm for good measure. It was at her angriest that her Italian was clear and effortless. "You can't swim!" Ezio said back evenly, and her boiling blood calmed. He was worried, she thought unhappily. At once she felt bad for yelling at him. She stood straight and rested a hand at his cheek, but again popped him lightly on his head. "How can I drown in water I can stand in Ezio?" she asked behind a giggle. He opened his mouth to quickly dismiss her words, but found himself unable to win the dispute. "Mi dispiace, Clara; I was worried." He said, dropping his forehead to hers. She smiled and slid her hand down his chest and let it rest there. The feel of his naked chest- 'Naked.'

The word rang in her mind abruptly, and then again, she became very aware to their position. The image of Ezio naked filled her mind, and she again stepped from him swiftly. Ezio stared at her, a pout twisting his face. She couldn't understand why she was so mystified by his naked form; she had seen it plenty of times before, and better yet, her own naked body had been pressed against his countless times. So with that thought, she stood straight and let out a steady breath. Her hands moved behind her back and her bra unclasped, the straps sliding down her arms. Ezio's pout disappeared and was quickly replaced with a playful smile, and a slight tilt of his head. She moved back to him then, her hands running up his chest and along his neck until her fingers were tangled in his brown locks of hair. Although she loved and craved his kisses, the feeling of his skin against hers solidified the link they shared. Not only through body and love, but mind and blood. His hands slid along her sides to pull her flush against him once again, his lips swooping down to capture hers. She giggled against his lips as he secured his hold around her and fell backwards into the water. Even under the cool fluid, his warm body still radiated against hers.


	10. Ch 7: Breathe Between Sprints

**Hello everyone! Thank you so, so very much for the reviews and favorites on my stories! They are very much appreciated. :3 and I am so, so sorry for suddenly falling off the face of the Earth. xD There have been ridiculous complications in my writing programs and believe it or not I finally got it all straightened out :D I can't even stress how badly I've been wanting to update this story T^T But here it is; the very much belated Chapter 8! Enjoy~**

_**Deadmau5 - Strobe**_**  
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Clara approached her door unhurriedly, but stopped when her fingers grazed the door knob. The swell of emotions that were still moving up and down her body made it nearly impossible to walk back into her room and appear unaffected by her absence of mind, but that was impossible to do so in front of an Assassin. He was right next to her; he saw her move like that. It was best to just forget it and don't let him bring it up… Right? Shuffling noises from inside the room caught her attention, and she pressed her ear to the door. It sounded like he had gotten into her stack of magazines and was thumbing through the pages. A small smile curled her lips, and she took a steady breath, and walked in. Her mouth had opened, ready to bring up a less embarrassing conversation, but she was stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted Ezio staring harshly at the cover of a game magazine. This particular magazine was launching Assassins Creed Revelations, and had a digital drawing of Ezio on the front, but he was aged and in completely different Assassins robes. She wished she could back out of the room, and avoid explaining why his face was plastered over many pieces of merchandise in her room. Just then he looked up at her, and she closed the door silently behind her, leaning against it.

"Clara?" he said sadly, clenching the magazine tightly in his hands. She sighed heavily. "Is- Is that.." he trailed off, looking back down to it and rocking back on his feet so he landed on his bottom. "Yes, Ezio. That's you." She finished. "Or what was thought to be you many years from now." She corrected as she pushed off the door and walked to him, and sat silently. It must've been everything in between horrifying and sickening to see himself that old. He looked back to her with bemused eyes and she gently grabbed the magazine from him, and took a moment to look down at it. This was something she used to stare at for long moments at a time, solely excited for the games release. But now having the actual man before her was becoming very hard to deal with. "How is this possible?" he asked, his tone darkening as he leaned back against the wall but kept his eyes downcast. "Ezio, I've told you before. You used to be a computer animation; something someone created purely for entertainment." She explained, speaking softly against the harsh words. "That doesn't answer my question." He snapped, and she hid her flinch. "I don't-" she started to mumble, setting the magazine aside and moving closer to him. "I mean- Ugh. Why did this have to happen to me?" he grumbled to himself, moving from her and standing. Her eyes followed his carefully, as he walked towards where his hidden blade was placed by her bed. She moved her back to the wall and pulled her knees into her chest and rested her chin upon them, trying to think of something to say. She could tell him how it happened, but not why. "I'm sorry." She said, looking back over to him as he picked up the vambrace and ran his thumb over the engravings.

He set it back down and sat at the foot of her bed, and looked back to her. Though he did a fine job of hiding the anger, she could see it in his eyes that he was boiling with rage under the surface. "It's not your fault." He said softly, craning his head back to rest against the mattress. "It actually kind of is." She said, and bit her bottom lip. He simply shrugged and kept his eyes to the ceiling, studying the intricate designs her and her friends had drawn. Never before had he wanted to be home so badly. All earlier thought of possibly ravishing the girl across from him were easily swept aside; pushed into the farthest corner of his mind. There was a long time of just awkward silence between them as they both thought to themselves. The only sound that filled the room was the soft hum of the TV, and then when Ezio shifted and moved his legs out in front of him and groaned uncomfortably. She took the moment to break the silence. "Everything will be okay." She said softly, and smiled at him. He shook his head slowly, and leaned forward to place his arms atop his knees. "No it won't." he grumbled, and she furrowed her brows. "I had a life Clara. A home; family! Even if some of them were dead I still had a mother and sister to take care of! I even had a girl." He nearly yelled, and during so he had shifted to the side on one hand to glare at her. Her whole body stiffened and she balled her hands into tight fists as the fear started to course it's way up her body. "Now I'm stuck in this place." He added, giving her room a disgusted once over with his eyes. With that, Clara became more angered the scared and stood suddenly and walked past him. "Look I'm sorry, okay? I'm trying my hardest here." She argued as she turned back to look at him. "I don't care! I want to go home!" he hollered, and stood quickly and moved towards her as his arm threw out to the side to motion towards her window. Clara's breath hitched as the thought of his hand swiping harshly across her face filled her mind. Her eyes closed and her body flinched back, and her feet slid out from underneath her. She fell on her side harshly and Ezio watched in confusion as she used her feet to push back from him, a small whimper breaking through her clenched teeth. His arm lowered and she finally opened her eyes slowly, but her vision was blurred behind tears that were making themselves known as they trailed down her cheeks swiftly. Her eyes darted the space around her, and she noticed that she had crawled through their dinner and also snapped the glass plates in half, and some of those plates had cut open her hands a bit.

She stood then and didn't look at him as she quickly began to reach for the plates, but found it hard to grip them, and when she took the time to look at her hands, she found they were bleeding and shaking furiously against her control. A feeling of severe nervousness and embarrassment started to wash over her, so she spun quickly to hide her disgruntled exterior and walked out of her room, leaving a trace of blood on the doorknob as she closed the door loudly behind her. She wiped the tears with the back of her hand and took the steps downstairs two at a time, and hurried into the kitchen. Her dad was snoring loudly on the couch with the TV still on loud. She rushed into the pantry and instead of turning the light on, she searched blindly with her hands for the garbage bags. If she were in a right state of mind, she would've remembered that they were actually under the sink. But that thought was gone. She was wide eyed and tearing in the dark pantry, still frantically looking for the bags as the memory of Ezio yelling lapsed over and over again in her mind like a broken record. She final stopped searching and gripped to the top shelf and rested her forehead against another ledge, her eyes pinching shut in attempts to calm herself down. This was _his _fault; a man named Adam Sanchez. He ruined her, damaged her. He was the reason she couldn't stop crying; the reason why her nightmares sending reeling from her sleep and screaming her head off. Yet even after he beat her inches from death and then had the audacity to come back and beg for forgiveness, her love for that monster prevented her from saying no. And every time he showed back up from months of not being seen, he would always take a piece of her with him when he disappeared. She mentally beat herself fiercer then he ever did for foolishly falling back into his arms every time he called to her.

She pushed herself from the ledges and walked from the pantry and to the sink, calmly pulling the trash bags out and leaning against the cold counter. A deep, hitched sigh left her body and she felt some of the shaking wind down.

Ezio still stood in bewilderment at what he had just witnessed. The raw fear he had seen in her eyes and written on her body had questions growing in his mind, but first, he had to sort through the mess he had just made. His outburst was childish and uncalled for, just like the other tantrums he had thrown. Clara really was doing everything in her power to make his stay here more comfortable, but it wasn't until now that he saw it. With food and glass scrambled about her carpet and blood on her doorknob, he was seeing the seriousness of his outburst. His hands rested at his hips, and the soft material below them also made him realize just how much she's given him, not to notice a place in her home. He walked over to his robes and lifted them. They were still damp and reeked of stale water and something strong that burned his lungs. It reminded him of the first day he met her, when he was half conscious and his lungs filled with water. That day she saved his life.

Clara walked calmly up the stairs as she wiped the last of blood from her hands and stopped at her door again, listening for anything, but heard nothing. 'Did he leave?' she thought suddenly, and opened the door quicker then she meant to. But there he was, holding his robes up and turning his soft gaze to her. Instead of acknowledging him she moved to the mess on her carpet and went to cleaning it. She felt if she even tried to talk to him he would yell at her again everything she had heard numerous times before, and at this point, she was too exhausted emotionally to even fathom the thought of him doing so again. As she reached for one of the larger pieces of glass, his hand was already on it and dropping it into the bag. Their eyes met for a moment, and he smiled gently at her. But she looked away, returning to the task at hand. "Mi dispiace, Clara." He said softly, and she could hear the genuine apology in his voice. "I don't want to hear it." She said coldly, and he looked at her. He didn't expect that. She stared at him with critical eyes; eyes that have seen the worst but still came out on top of the world. Her eyes moved from his again, but her head moved first. She was reluctant to pull away from his pretty eyes even in the grip of anger.

"I'm doing everything I can, Ezio." She said firmly, tossing the last piece of glass away and sitting back against her bed. "I can imagine how horrible you must feel being thrown into a whole new world, and I know it's my fault you're here," she paused to wipe away a stream of tears. "But you need to give me a chance to breathe between sprints." She alliterated, and hoped he would understand what she was trying to say. Clara's jaw tightened in aggravation when Ezio moved to sit next to her, and rested his arms over his raised knees. The two sat in silence, unmoving and tense. Clara did not like them to be like this, even if they had only known each other for two days. 'Two days.' She thought to herself. She was perplexed at how quickly things had been unraveling between the two, and then was overwhelmed just by the entire situation they had both fallen into. Never did she think anything like this was possible, and it made her wonder just how much more in the world she was blissfully unaware to. 'Bigfoot must be real.' She thought jokingly to herself, and looked away to hide a soft grin. "Okay." Ezio finally said, and she looked back at him, taking a second to remember what they had been talking about. "Huh?" she asked blankly, and he scooted on his bottom to face her. Instead of saying anything more, he only stared at her, and eventually she nodded, and simply said, "Okay."


End file.
